Refusal Avoidance

Because refusals make up a large portion of survey nonresponse, researchers want to minimize their occurrence as much as possible. Refusal avoidance is the researcher's awareness of, and efforts to eliminate or mitigate, factors that influence potential respondents toward refusing an invitation to participate in a survey. The relevance of concerted efforts to lower refusal rates is that the researcher is trying to reduce survey error through improvement in response rates, thus ostensibly improving the overall quality of the research.

Although there are many factors that influence a potential respondent's decision to participate in research, it is logical and cost-effective for researchers to concentrate on those factors under the control of the researcher, such as survey design and administration. As an integral part of the survey design process, the researcher not only should provide positive influences to a respondent to encourage participation (e.g. persuasive introductory text or verbiage, visually appealing research material, use of noncontingent monetary incentives) but also should strive to reduce or eliminate negative influences. Once the survey has been designed, the administration of the survey can also be refined with refusal avoidance in mind (e.g. interviewer selection, training, survey procedures, timing).

Seeking to increase the positive aspects during survey design is a natural starting point to avoid refusals and thereby improve response rates. Crafting introductory verbiage and responses (i.e. persuaders and other fallback statements) to respondents for telephone or in-person recruitment and the textual and visual appeal of mail or Internet recruitment will help avoid refusals and thereby improve the likelihood of response. This may include pretesting and focus groups with potential respondents or effective interviewers. Additionally, increasing the visibility or positioning of other positives should be considered, such leveraging (a) the research topic or sponsor, (b) that the entire population or certain subpopulations will benefit from the research results, (c) that incentives being are being offered, and (d) that by cooperating one is representing one's community.

Decreasing negative elements to research requests also is important, though it may not receive as much attention as increasing the positives. Often researchers will review their research materials and survey design to eliminate obvious negatives, such as confusing language. However, the researcher should also concentrate on understanding the population of interest, their social environment, and social-psychological attributes. For example, surveys among the various segments of the Asian population must be sensitive to their cultural heritage, such as knowing that many Chinese respondents may consider the number “4” (e.g. a $4 incentive) bad luck whereas 8 is considered a good number, white color is less favorable than red, and a gift of a clock (i.e. as an incentive) is a bad omen.

A survey should be administered with the aim of preventing refusals; both the delivery mode of the survey request(s) and the rules for making requests should be devised with this aim in mind. The researcher may improve likelihood of participation by attending to interviewer selection, training, and appearance; materials and delivery method (email, U.S. Postal Service, UPS, FedEx, etc.); visual appeal (use of color, pictures, logos, etc.); and so forth. The study contact rules can also improve response and avoid refusals through using effective contact times (e.g. evenings and weekends), number of contact attempts, using multiple modes for making the survey request, and so on. Additionally, the researcher should evaluate the reasons for refusals through use of a refusal report form or other means during and after the field period to improve future research (e.g. debrief meetings or focus groups with interviewers to catalog specific objections, areas of concern, and breakoff points during request or survey).

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