Mitigating Satisficing in Cognitively Demanding Grid Questions: Evidence from Two Web-Based Experiments

Abstract

Satisficing often has been assumed to be a hazard to response quality in web surveys because interview supervision is limited in the absence of a human interviewer. Therefore, devising methods that help to mitigate satisficing poses an important challenge to survey methodology. The present article examines whether splitting up cognitively demanding grid questions into single items can be an effective means to reduce measurement error and nonresponse resulting from survey satisficing. Furthermore, we investigate whether modifying the question design decreases the adverse effects of low ability and motivation of the respondents on response quality. The statistical analyses in our study relied on data from two web-based experiments with respondents from an opt-in and a probability-based online panel. Our results showed that using single items increased the response times compared to the use of standard grid questions, which might indicate a greater response burden. However, the use of single items significantly reduced the amount of response nondifferentiation and nonsubstantive responses. Our results further showed that the impact of respondent ability and motivation on the likelihood of satisficing was moderated by the question design.