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Conducting high-quality, face-to-face, computer-assisted personal interviews is a demanding task that often calls for experienced interviewers holding specialised expertise and the motivation to gather the best possible survey data. Unfortunately, some interviewers may attempt to navigate the challenges of the surveying by resorting to different types of undesirable interviewer behaviour ranging from minor infractions like speeding to more serious transgressions such as partial or even complete data fabrication. Given that even a small number of fabricated interviews can contaminate an entire dataset, it is imperative to swiftly identify the most serious forms of undesirable interviewer behaviour. With ethical and privacy considerations of interviewers and respondents in mind, we developed a novel approach called the Virtual Surrounding Impression (VSI), which allows the gravest forms of undesirable interviewer behaviour to be detected without resorting to actually recording location, audio or video data while taking account of ethical and privacy concerns. We show that the VSI approach enables the detection of instances where a single interviewer conducts multiple interviews at the same location or where the location changes during an interview, signalling possible fabrication, whether partlialy or full. Keywords: survey interview fabrication detection, undesired interviewer behaviour, survey interview location, virtual surrounding impression.

Austria has been a member country of SHARE since its inception in 2004. In this paper, we address quality management in surveys and highlight three components - contract, sampling, and fieldwork management - that are fundamental for high data-quality. We provide an overview of a SHARE wave and discuss our approach to data-quality management based on the example of SHARE management in Austria. Results confirm that focusing on fieldwork quality management has the potential to improve overall data quality.

Researchers have often claimed that the interviewer’s nonverbal behavior such as nodding facilitates rapport building, the number of recalled details, and verbal veracity cues. However, there is no experiment to-date that isolated the effects of nodding in information gathering interviews. We thus examined the effects of interviewer’s nodding behavior on rapport perceptions and on the number and accuracy of total details provided by truth tellers and lie tellers. Participants ( N  = 150) watched a video recording and then reported it truthfully or falsely to an interviewer. The interviewer showed demeanor that was either supportive with nodding, supportive without nodding, or neutral. Truth tellers reported more total details than lie tellers and these effects were similar across demeanor conditions. No significant effects emerged for rapport perceptions and accuracy of total details. These results suggest that the interviewer’s nodding behavior does not affect rapport perceptions and details provided by truth tellers and lie tellers.

This chapter contains sections titled: Why do We Study Interaction in the Survey Interview? Questions, Behavior, and Quality of Measurement: A Conceptual Model Coding the Behavior of Interviewers and Respondents Conversation Analytic Studies of Interaction in the Interview Excerpt 3.1. Wisconsin Longitudinal Study, Question 2 Excerpt 3.2. Wisconsin Longitudinal Study, Question 1 Excerpt 3.3. Wisconsin Longitudinal Study, Question 7 Characteristics of Survey Questions Excerpt 3.4. Wisconsin Longitudinal Study, Question 35 Conclusion Acknowledgments Notes References

Previous research has shown that certain interviewer behaviors can evoke inaccurate answers by children. In the current study, we examined the effects of approving and disapproving statements on the accuracy of 3 children's answers to questions in an interview (Experiment 1). We then evaluated 3 questioning techniques that may be used by interviewers during a forensic interview in which a child provides eyewitness testimony (Experiment 2). All participants responded with more inaccurate answers when approving statements followed inaccurate information and disapproving statements followed accurate information in Experiment 1. During Experiment 2, 1 participant responded most inaccurately when she was requestioned after providing an initial answer, whereas the remaining 2 participants responded most inaccurately when the interviewer provided cowitness information and suggestive questions.

In a standardized personal interview, elderly (65+) Dutch respondents (N = 233), were asked detailed retrospective questions about six physical activities like walking, cycling and their performance of household tasks. Surprisingly, the proportion of inadequate answers was small, suggesting that the interviewers—four professional research nurses—have done their very best to eventually obtain adequate answers. They used three different types of control of the interview process. Firstly, an optimal execution of the prescribed ‘open loop control’, that is, precisely following the text of the questionnaire. Secondly, via the ‘feedback loop control’ of repair: if nevertheless inadequate answers are given, further probing is performed until eventually an adequate answer is obtained. Thirdly, by decomposing a general question into its components, making the question easier to answer (partial questioning). Interaction analysis of transcripts of the interviews showed that the type of control exercised by the interviewers, strongly differed by topic of the question. It appeared that question topics requiring more complex cognitive activities of the respondents, not only lead to more (need for) repair, but also to larger differences between the interviewers concerning their readiness to use partial questioning as an alternative for the open loop control as designed by the researcher.

Purpose Evidence from past surveys suggests that some interviewees simplify their responses even in very well-organized and highly respected surveys. This paper aims to demonstrate that some interviewers, too, simplify their task by at least partly fabricating their data, and that, in some survey research institutes, employees simplify their task by fabricating entire interviews via copy and paste. Design/methodology/approach Using data from the principal questionnaires in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2012 and the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) data, the author applies statistical methods to search for fraudulent methods used by interviewers and employees at survey research organizations. Findings The author provides empirical evidence for potential fraud performed by interviewers and employees of survey research organizations in several countries that participated in PISA 2012 and PIAAC. Practical implications The proposed methods can be used as early as the initial phase of fieldwork to flag potentially problematic interviewer behavior such as copying responses. Originality/value The proposed methodology may help to improve data quality in survey research by detecting fabricated data.

Objectives To determine the effect of interviewer BMI on self-reported restrained eating in a face-to-face survey and to examine under- and over-reporting using the face-to face study and a postal follow-up. Methods A sample of 1,212 Dutch adults was assigned to 98 interviewers with different BMI who administered an eating questionnaire. To further evaluate misreporting a mail follow-up was conducted among 504 participants. Data were analyzed using two-level hierarchical models. Results Interviewer BMI had a positive effect on restrained eating. Normal weight and pre-obese interviewers obtained valid responses, underweight interviewers stimulated under-reporting whereas obese interviewers triggered over-reporting. Conclusion In face-to-face interviews self-reported dietary restraint is distorted by interviewer BMI. This result has implications for public health surveys, the more so given the expanding obesity epidemic.

This chapter contains sections titled: Introduction A Brief History How Behavior Coding is Done Evidence for the Significance of Behavior Coding Results Strengths and Limitations of Behavior Coding The Role of Behavior Coding in Question Evaluation Protocols Conclusion References

In standardized survey interviews with closed-ended questions it quite often occurs that respondents do something else than mentioning their choice from the set of response categories presented together with the question. In these cases their initial response is inadequate and interviewers have to initiate repair activities. By analyzing 804 question-answer sequences, stemming from parts of a survey with elderly people (N=201), we found that 322 (41%) of the initial responses were inadequate. In 74% of these 332 sequences the interviewers made an attempt at repair. Of all repair attempts, 75% were performed correctly, that is, in a nondirective way. Most of the repair attempts (86%) result in an adequate final response of the respondent. The result of the repair activities by the interviewers is that the number of sequences with an adequate response increased from 472 to 688, thus an increase of about 45%. There does not exist 'one best way' of repairing. The most important thing is that some repair initiative has to be taken by the interviewer and that the repair is done in a nondirective way.[PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]