Relevance & Research Question: Smartphones provide promising new ways to collect survey data. An interesting option is to ask respondents to submit photos. However, virtually no research exists on how trust in surveyors about proper handling of submitted photos and risk beliefs related to submitting photos in mobile surveys impact the willingness to submit photos. Thus, we addressed three research questions: (1) What are smartphone users’ attitudes toward submitting photos in a mobile survey? (2) How do trust and risk beliefs differ according to the sensitivity of photos? (3) How do trust and risk beliefs affect the willingness to submit photos in a mobile survey?

Methods & Data: A follow-up subsample of respondents from the Slovenian Public Opinion Survey was used (n = 280 smartphone users). Respondents were presented with a hypothetical scenario of a mobile survey requesting three different photos: a window panorama, an open refrigerator, and a selfie. The respondents were first asked in an open-ended question to write their thoughts about the scenario. Next, they were asked about their willingness to submit the three photos and to indicate their trust and risk beliefs for each. The data were analyzed qualitatively (open-ended question), and quantitatively by three regression models.

Results: The respondents believed that submitting photos can be a threat to anonymity, and they would only submit photos that they did not perceive as too sensitive in terms of possible abuses. Interestingly, 47.9% of respondents would submit a photo of an open window panorama, 40.4% of an open refrigerator, and only 8.6% their selfie. Additionally, photos perceived as more sensitive were associated with lower trust and higher risk beliefs. Moreover, trust beliefs increased their willingness to submit photos while risk beliefs decreased it.

Added Value: The study indicates that only photos that respondents do not perceive as a threat to their anonymity can be collected in mobile surveys. Indeed, risk and trust beliefs play an important role in the decision to submit photos. Future research might investigate different types of trust and risk beliefs as well as study respondents’ actual submission of photos in mobile surveys.

Relevance & Research Question:

In times of declining response rates, investigating the determinants of survey participation in general and panel participation in particular are of special importance. Empirical evidence indicates that general attitudes towards surveys do predict willingness to participate in (online) surveys (de Leeuw et al. 2017; Jungermann et al. 2019). Beyond survey attitudes themselves, however, political engagement can be seen as another predictor for survey participation (Silber et al. 2020). The underlying assumption is that answering questions is one way to express personal opinion. Therefore, we analyse to what extent survey attitudes and political attitudes are associated.

Methods & Data:

We use data from two different panel surveys for groups of highly qualified: starting cohort 5 of the National Educational Panel Study (NEPS, n=3879) and cohort 2009 of the DZHW graduate panel (DZHW GP, n=619). Both surveys include the Survey Attitude Scale (SAS) in its nine item short form as proposed by de Leeuw et al. (2019) as well as different measures for political engagement.

Results:

Overall, our results show only weak and few significant correlations between the three dimensions of the SAS and different measures of political engagement. Survey Value shows significant positive correlations with different measures for social trust and political interest. In contrast, Survey Burden is significantly negative associated with participation in the last national election and general trust in others as well as general political activities. Finally, we find significant positive correlations between Survey Enjoyment and political interest as well as membership in a political party or association.

Added Value:

In sum, our empirical findings do not show theoretically expected strong associations between the SAS and political engagement. However, our sample consists of participants of already well established panel studies. Being asked in the 14th wave in the case of NEPS and the third wave (within ten years) in the case of DZHW GP, they can be regarded as professional respondents. Consequently, we suggest replicating the study by Silber et al. (2020) with a sample of newly sampled respondents of the highly qualified, because it is interesting to contrast this group against general population.