Surveys on Surveys: Limitations and Potentialities

Data from two surveys on surveys in Waterloo, Ontario were used to assess attitudes toward the survey. Questions in the two surveys inquired into motives for refusing/consenting to interviews; attitudes toward past experience with surveys; likes/dislikes of form of contact, question format, and topic; perception of social pressure to respond to surveys; views on the social legitimacy of polling and on legislative controls for surveying. The surveys also collected response histories. Analysis of the attitudes began with a factor analysis of 12 items, which identified four factors descending from the general to the particular. It was found that attitudes are related to exposure to surveying, i.e., the more times a person reports requests for survey cooperation, the more unfavorable is his or her attitude toward the method. On the whole, however, the author finds that the evidence presented belies pessimistic views about surveys on surveys.