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River Sampling - a Fishing Expedition: A Non-Probability Case Study
[journal article]
Abstract The ease with which large amounts of data can be collected via the Internet has led to a renewed interest in the use of non-probability samples. To that end, this paper performs a case study, comparing two non-probability datasets - one based on a river-sampling approach, one drawn from an online-a... view more
The ease with which large amounts of data can be collected via the Internet has led to a renewed interest in the use of non-probability samples. To that end, this paper performs a case study, comparing two non-probability datasets - one based on a river-sampling approach, one drawn from an online-access panel - to a reference probability sample. Of particular interest is the single-question river-sampling approach, as the data collected for this study presents an attempt to field a multi-item scale with such a sampling method. Each dataset consists of the same psychometric measures for two of the Big-5 personality traits, which are expected to perform independently of sample composition. To assess the similarity of the three datasets we compare their correlation matrices, apply linear and non-linear dimension reduction techniques, and analyze the distance between the datasets. Our results show that there are important limitations when implementing a multi-item scale via a single-question river sample. We find that, while the correlation between our data sets is similar, the samples are composed of persons with different personality traits.... view less
Keywords
data capture; Internet; sample; online survey; survey research
Classification
Methods and Techniques of Data Collection and Data Analysis, Statistical Methods, Computer Methods
Free Keywords
River Sample; Non-probability Sample; BIG-5; Non-linear Dimension reduction; Web Survey Research
Document language
English
Publication Year
2023
Page/Pages
p. 3-27
Journal
Methods, data, analyses : a journal for quantitative methods and survey methodology (mda), 17 (2023) 1
ISSN
2190-4936
Status
Published Version; peer reviewed