NSF Org:	SES Division of Social and Economic Sciences
Recipient:	REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
Initial Amendment Date:	September 12, 2009
Latest Amendment Date:	September 12, 2009
Award Number:	0921142
Award Instrument:	Standard Grant
Program Manager:	Cheryl Eavey ceavey@nsf.gov  (703)292-7269 SES  Division of Social and Economic Sciences SBE  Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences
Start Date:	September 15, 2009
End Date:	August 31, 2010 (Estimated)
Total Intended Award Amount:	$12,000.00
Total Awarded Amount to Date:	$12,000.00
Funds Obligated to Date:	FY 2009 = $12,000.00
History of Investigator:	Frederick Conrad (Principal Investigator) fconrad@umich.edu Courtney Kennedy (Co-Principal Investigator)
Recipient Sponsored Research Office:	Regents of the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor 1109 GEDDES AVE STE 3300 ANN ARBOR MI  US  48109-1015 (734)763-6438
Sponsor Congressional District:	06
Primary Place of Performance:	Regents of the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor 1109 GEDDES AVE STE 3300 ANN ARBOR MI  US  48109-1015
Primary Place of Performance Congressional District:	06
Unique Entity Identifier (UEI):	GNJ7BBP73WE9
Parent UEI:
NSF Program(s):	Methodology, Measuremt & Stats
Primary Program Source:	01000910DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT
Program Reference Code(s):	0000, OTHR
Program Element Code(s):	133300
Award Agency Code:	4900
Fund Agency Code:	4900
Assistance Listing Number(s):	47.075

ABSTRACT

Landline telephone surveys have been used for several decades to generate critical knowledge about consumer confidence, health conditions, political attitudes, and other characteristics of the American public. The coverage provided by this methodology is rapidly declining due to widespread adoption and, in many cases, substitution of mobile (cell) phones over landlines. In order to address this problem, survey researchers have begun supplementing landline surveys with samples of mobile phone numbers. The error properties of mobile phone surveys, particularly with respect to nonresponse and measurement, are largely unknown. Researchers have limited knowledge as to why some people answer surveys on their mobile phone but others do not. It is also an open question as to whether people respond less accurately on a mobile phone as compared to a landline. The potential to reach people outside the home or engaged in an activity that distracts from the task of responding could result in respondents taking more cognitive shortcuts and providing less accurate data relative to a landline interview. These dynamics could also reduce the reliability of survey estimates and, for some measures, even change the mean of the response distribution. This proposal details an innovative study that will address these gaps in the literature. A repeated-measures design will be used to gain insights into individual-level mechanisms of nonresponse to alert researches to statistics at greatest risk of nonresponse bias. Randomization of subjects to phone type (mobile/landline) will facilitate testing for differential use of cognitive shortcuts in mobile phone versus landline interviews. The randomization step used in this experiment overcomes a critical confound that limits previous studies. This research will generate much-needed knowledge about the quality of data from mobile phone surveys. This knowledge will inform data collection decisions made by researchers who produce statistics about the American public.

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