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Interviewer Characteristics

Interviewer characteristics refer to the personal attributes of the interviewer who is conducting a survey with a respondent. These attributes may include physical attributes, such as gender, age, and voice qualities, and attitudinal or behavioral attributes, such as confidence or friendliness. Both visual and audio cues are available to respondents in face-to-face surveys, but respondents have only audio cues in telephone surveys. The characteristics of the interviewer introduce additional factors into the interaction between interviewer and respondent that may affect data collection and data quality. Research has shown that interviewer characteristics affect unit nonresponse, item nonresponse, and response quality.

Physical Characteristics

Physical characteristics of the interviewer, such as age, gender, or race, may be used by the respondent in the decision whether to agree to the survey request and to set expectations of the interview experience. Studies on the effects of these attributes on interview outcomes show mixed results. There is evidence that older interviewers are more likely to be consistent in administering surveys and introduce less response variation. No consistent effects of gender have been found on data quality although female interviewers, on average, achieve higher response rates. There has been considerable study of interviewer race effects. The matching of characteristics of the interviewer to the respondent has been shown to improve respondent cooperation and data quality. Respondents appear to be more comfortable and thus cooperative with someone similar to themselves, especially in interviews on sensitive topics such as inequality and racial discrimination.

In telephone interviews, interviewer characteristics can only be conveyed through the audio interaction with the respondent. Physical characteristics that can be perceived over the phone include gender, age, and possibly, race and ethnic origin, as well as voice characteristics such as loudness and rate of speech. These characteristics can be measured both acoustically and through subjective perception. Acoustic measures of voice properties that have been studied include fundamental frequency of the voice sound waves, the variation in fundamental frequency, and measures of rate of speech and inflection. While acoustic voice measures have been found to help explain interviewer success, the measures studied have not been found to explain outcome of a particular contact. As with face-to-face interviewing, female interviewers tend to have higher response rates, but there is limited empirical evidence of gender effects on data quality. Race and ethnic origin of the interviewer may be conveyed through accents or articulation, but there is little research on these possible effects.

Attitudinal and Behavioral Characteristics

Attitudinal and behavioral characteristics of the interviewer have also been found to be related to survey response and cooperation. These characteristics are more difficult to measure, but they have been found to be significant predictors of response, as they represent the attributes of the interviewer that lead to establishing successful interviewer-respondent rapport. Attitudinal characteristics that have been studied include interviewer confidence, optimism, and persuasiveness. Behavioral characteristics have included attention to details, social skills, and interview behaviors such as points of engagement in survey introductions. Interviewer confidence, as measured either by the interviewer or by an observer, has been found to be positively related to survey success, although evidence is not conclusive. The effects of interviewer optimism, friendliness, agreeableness suggest that being overly open with a respondent leads to greater response variation. Interviewers who are socially skilled, without being overly sociable, are more likely to be able to tailor the interaction with the respondent and maintain data quality across interviews. A study that analyzed the effects of interviewer physical attributes, interviewer attitudes, and interviewer behaviors across multiple surveys and across countries found all three categories of characteristics to significantly predict interviewer response rates, with interviewer attitudes being the best predictor.

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