Face-to-face surveys allow researchers to guide a participant through a questionnaire in person. This allows the interviewer to clarify any questions or address confusion while the participant is taking the questionnaire.
Let’s examine the pros and cons of face-to-face surveys.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| High response and completion rate | Expensive administrative costs |
| Minimize response error because the researcher has control over the interview | More possibility for bias because of interviewer effects |
By having the interviewer present, you can improve the likelihood that your participants are interpreting your questions as intended. Additionally, having an interviewer guide the participants through the questionnaire can increase the response rate. An interviewer can also encourage respondents to answer all of the questions to the best of their ability, which will help to generate a more complete set of data.
Of course, face-to-face surveys are also subject to bias. The mere presence of an interviewer may impact an individual’s responses, a phenomenon called the interviewer effects. Interviewees may also be influenced by social desirability bias and answering questions in a way they believe to be favorable to others present.
Ethics Check
There is a difference between guiding a participant towards answering a question they may not be immediately comfortable with and prodding them to answer a question when they are clearly uncomfortable. In order to guide a participant towards answering, trust must be built between researcher and participant. It is essential that researchers inform participants on how their responses will be used, who will see them, and the level of anonymity their responses will have.
The coming modules will cover more ethical implications of question and questionnaire design.
Certain sensitive topics may not lend themselves to face-to-face surveys. Questions relating to health, religion, personal finances, or sexuality can all cause participants to feel uncomfortable and hesitant to answer in person. Self-guided surveys tend to be a preferable option to preserve anonymity when questionnaires touch upon these private topics.
In addition, anonymity is impossible in an in-person interview. In situations, where anonymity is impossible, confidentiality is commonly the next best option for making participants feel comfortable. Researchers will often have some type of identifying information on a participant (such as a numeric identifier), but this information should be carefully protected to keep the identity of participants undisclosed.
Finally, face-to-face surveys can be costly, as interviewers must be compensated for their time and travel, or budget a considerable amount of your own time to carry it out yourself.
