JPSM/MPSM Seminar Series
December 2, 2020
Samantha Chiu
PhD Student, JPSM, University of Maryland
Leanna Moron
Masters Student, JPSM, University of Maryland
Effects of Recruitment Images in a Facebook Survey of COVID-19
Facebook offers a platform where surveys can be conducted both quickly and cheaply (Ramo and Prochaska 2012, Batterham 2014, Zagheni et al. 2017, Alexander et al. 2019). Building on leverage-salience theory (Groves et al., 2020, Groves et al. 2004) as well as prior studies of the effects of images in web surveys (Couper et al. 2007, Knobloch et al. 2003, Prior 2002), we conducted an experiment to assess the impact of different recruitment images on a Facebook survey. The survey -- about COVID-19 – randomly assigned respondents to five images (COVID-19, mental health, finance, data privacy, and a nonspecific, control image). We examine differences by image in the level and composition of recruitment as well as in the answers to the survey items, which are benchmarked against a national probability web panel that asked the same items at the same time.