Mannheim Research Colloquium on Survey Methods: Merits and Limits of Open Voice Answers from Smartphone Surveys

The increase of smartphone usage in web surveys, coupled with developments in communication technology, provide novel opportunities for measuring respondents’ attitudes and opinions. Specifically, smartphones allow the collection of voice instead of text answers by using the built-in microphone. This facilitates answering open questions potentially resulting in richer information and higher data quality. However, existing research also points to some methodological shortcomings. For example, voice answers add an additional layer to data processing because they require transcription and result in relatively high item non-response. In this talk, I provide empirical evidence on the merits and limits of voice answers collected in smartphone surveys. To this end, I start with new insights into the performance of Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) systems when it comes to the transcription of voice answers. I then look at item non-response identifying characteristics of “non-responders.” Finally, I evaluate the linguistic and content characteristics of voice answers in comparison to text answers.

Please use this link to attend the colloquium via Zoom:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86829349377?pwd=OGdwMnV1d0hzMGRmNnhWaEdsc3VyQT09

MaRCS is a seminar series jointly organized by the Mannheim Centre for European Social Research (MZES), the University of Mannheim School of Social Sciences, and GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences.