The effects of discussion and question wording on self and proxy reports of behavioral frequencies
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The effects of discussion and question wording on self and proxy reports of behavioral frequencies Barbara A. Bickart · Joan M. Phillips · Johnny Blair
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Springer Science + Business Media, LLC 2006
Abstract Marketing research surveys often rely on one person to report about the consumption and purchase behavior of other household members. We report the results of an experiment examining how the level of discussion among household members and the wording of a recall question affect the accuracy of reports about the frequency of another household member’s behavior. The findings suggest two important implications. First, asking respondents for a count versus an estimate of the behavior affects both the level of reporting for others as well as the accuracy of such reports. Second, screening potential respondents on their level of discussion on a topic with their partner or family member may help reduce reporting error. Keywords Survey accuracy · Proxy reports · Behavioral frequencies Marketing researchers are frequently interested in understanding the purchasing behavior and product usage of an entire household. As the prospect of questioning each household member individually is likely to be procedurally impractical or prohibitively expensive, researchers often rely on “proxy” reports where one household member answers questions about the behavior of the others. For example, proxy reports are commonly used to collect information about household participation in the labor force in the Current Population Survey and about household expenditures in the Consumer Expenditures Study. Although peoples’ ability to report accurately about their own B. A. Bickart () Rutgers University-Camden, 227 Penn Street, Camden, NJ 08102 e-mail: [email protected] J. M. Phillips University of Notre Dame, Mendoza College of Business e-mail: [email protected] J. Blair Abt Associates, Inc. e-mail: Johnny [email protected] Springer
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Market Lett (2006) 17:167–180
and other household members’ past behavior is important to marketing researchers, the factors that drive the accuracy of reports about others are not well understood (Moore, 1988). Here we examine how two important factors—discussion about a topic and wording of the behavioral frequency question—influence the accuracy of such reports. Past research examines variables that moderate agreement between self and proxy reports. For example, Menon et al. (1995) demonstrated that increased discussion or participation between dyad members resulted in greater correspondence between reports about self and a partner’s report about them on both behaviors and attitudes (see also Kojetin and Miller, 1993; Kojetin and Mullin, 1995; Kojetin and Jerstad, 1997; Sudman et al., 1994). Whereas these prior studies examined the concordance between self and proxy reports, we compare proxy reports to actual behavior. We draw on literatures that address how events are stored in memory and how people answer behavioral frequency questions to develop a conceptual model of proxy reporting. Then,
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