Comparing Telephone Surveys and Interview Surveys

An Experimental Study of the Yomiuri Newspaper Public Opinion Surveys

Abstract

In this article, we are examining the data of5different sets of interview and telephone surveys, which were conducted by Yomiuri Newspaper from May 1994 through January 1995. In each sets, both telephone and interview survey data were collected with the identical sampling design, on the same interviewing dates and at the same interview points. According to our comparative examination, demographic distribution of the samples did not differ significantly from telephone surveys to interview surveys, but the response pattern were clearly different on some questions. Therefore, it can tentatively be concluded that the different response patterns between the two interview methods are most likely due to the interview environment created by telephones as media of interview. As these findings could only be obtained through an empirical examination, we need to continue our empirical examination and comparison of this new survey method.