Suchergebnisse

The false survey gambit has been fairly widely used in the field of direct selling. The general concern is the effect of such practices upon the efficiency of legitimate field survey research. The hypothesis tested was: A prior exposure to a false survey, ie, a direct sales attempt, will significantly increase the refusal rate in a legitimate fixed-address survey. An effort to approximate field selling conditions was made by the selection of a homogeneous, middle-income housing development. All residences in selected blocks were randomly assigned to either the experimental or control group. 104 experimental & 70 control units were identified. Field interviewers asked members of the experimental group to participate in a marketing research study. A fairly low-key sales presentation for a fictious encyclopedia was delivered to those who agreed & the specific R in the household was carefully identified. The refusal rate--the proportion of persons who refused to cooperate in the false research--was approximately 50%. From 2 to 4 days after their initial participation in the study the 54 persons in the experimental group & the 70 members of the control group were approached by a different interviewer. The same opening statement was used in both the experimental & control interviews. The refusal rate for the 1st interview phase of the experimental group & the control group were virtually identical at 48.1 & 48.6% respectively. However, the effect of the 2nd exposure upon the experimental group was very pronounced, 75% refused to cooperate in the research. The difference in the refusal rate was significant with p <.005. The study involved small numbers of R's & the groups were homogeneous in composition, & as the same opening statement was used in all situations there may have been enough recall stimulus to contaminate the findings. It is possible that the same results could have been obtained from 2 consecutive sales calls or 2 research contacts. 2 Tables. AA.