Definition
A Web-based survey used to collect information.
Introduction
As mentioned in the Surveys and Questionnaires section, data collection can occur online. Online methods can present unique benefits when compared with traditional survey methods, but they also come with a unique set of challenges. This section will discuss some of the advantages and disadvantages to using online methods, some ways to improve the quality of data collected online, and, finally, one commonly used source of online participants, Amazon Mechanical Turk.
Benefits of Online Surveys
Many of the positive aspects of online surveys revolve around the ease of creation and use, broad reach, low associated expense, and quick turnaround when compared to traditional survey methods. Online methods can be developed easily and quickly through software specifically designed for survey creation or through...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
References
Berinsky, A. J., Huber, G. A., & Lenz, G. S. (2012). Evaluating online labor markets for experimental research: Amazon.com’s Mechanical Turk. Political Analysis, 20, 351–368.
De Leeuw, D. (2005). To mix or not to mix data collection modes in surveys. Journal of Official Statistics, 21, 233–255.
Dillman, D. A., Phelps, G., Tortora, R., Swift, K., Kohrell, J., Berck, J., & Messer, B. L. (2009). Response rate and measurement differences in mixed-mode surveys using mail, telephone, interactive voice response (IVR) and the Internet. Social Science Research, 38, 1–18.
Goodman, J. K., Cryder, C. E., & Cheema, A. (2013). Data collection in a flat world: The strengths and weaknesses of Mechanical Turk samples. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 26, 213–224.
Hauser, D. J., & Schwarz, N. (2016). Attentive Turkers: MTurk participants perform better on online attention checks than do subject pool participants. Behavior research methods, 48(1), 400–407.
Horton, J., & Chilton, L. (2010). The labor economics of paid crowdsourcing. In Proceedings of the 11th ACM Conference on Electronic Commerce, Cambridge, MA.
Ipeirotis, P. G. (2010). Analyzing the amazon mechanical turk marketplace. XRDS: Crossroads, The ACM Magazine for Students, 17, 16–21.
Mason, W., & Suri, S. (2012). Conducting behavioral research on Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. Behavior research methods, 44(1), 1–23.
Paolacci, G., Chandler, J., & Ipeirotis, P. G. (2010). Running experiments on amazon mechanical turk. Judgment and Decision Making, 5, 411–419.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this entry
Cite this entry
Himes, S., Brandner, J. (2016). Online Survey. In: Weekes-Shackelford, V., Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_1849-1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_1849-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-16999-6
eBook Packages: Springer Reference Behavioral Science and PsychologyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences