The Content of Survey Introductions and the Provision of Informed Consent

Information disclosed to potential respondents in survey introductions was examined in a sample of 78 introductions obtained by mail from AAPOR members. The following information was disclosed: research organization, in 86 percent of the introductions; interviewer, 82 percent; research topic, 81 percent; sponsor, 45 percent; confidentiality, 42 percent; survey purpose, 26 percent; future data use, 24 percent; anonymity, 24 percent; sampling technique, 21 percent; survey length, 13 percent; statement that participation was voluntary, 10 percent; sample size, 4 percent; and consent signature requirement, 4 percent. Mail surveys (and to a lesser extent those by academic institutions and on sensitive topics) provided more introductory information. For ethical reasons, such as providing informed consent, as well as methodological reasons, professional norms about providing information in survey introductions need to be examined. Jeffery Sobal is Assistant Professor and Associate Director of Research, Department of Family Medicine, University of Maryland School of Medicine. Public Opinion Quarterly Vol. 48:788-793 C) by the Trustees of Columbia University Published by Elsevier Science Publishing Co., Inc. 0033-362X/84/0048-788/$2.50 This content downloaded from 207.46.13.169 on Sat, 01 Oct 2016 05:33:44 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms SURVEY INTRODUCTIONS AND INFORMED CONSENT 789 Rosen (1978), Leuptow, et al. (1977), Singer (1978a), and Sobal (1982). Data quality and bias have also been examined in relation to the amount of information disclosed in survey introductions. Less bias was reported in surveys with fuller introductions by Cannell, et al. (1977), and minimal differences were found by Singer (1978a, 1978b, 1979, 1982), Singer and Khonke-Aguirre (1979), and Sobal (1982). Although the traditional advice is that introductions should be brief and disclose minimal information about the research, most experimental studies of introductions suggest that fuller disclosure of information incurs few if any methodological costs, and some benefits. In contrast to the utilitarian approach to disclosing information in interview introductions taken by methodologists, an ethical perspective on the issue is based upon moral principles such as autonomy (Bower and DeGasparis, 1978; Kelman, 1968, 1982). Advocates of this viewpoint emphasize the potential respondents' right to be provided the fullest possible information about the survey before deciding whether or not to give their "informed consent" to participate. There is at present no consensus about what constitutes "informed" consent, and "informed" is considered to be a continuous rather than a categorical state (Wolfensberg, 1967). While informed consent may be encouraged by codes of ethics (Bower and DeGasparis, 1978) or required by sponsoring agencies (U.S. DHEW, 1971), the norms of the profession are the major determinant of how much information is actually provided. At this time, we do not know how much information is usually given in survey introductions, or how this varies by type of organization or type of survey. This study provides a tentative answer by describing the contents of a sample of introductions from surveys done by members of the American Association of Public Opinion Research (AAPOR).