How and Why Does the Mode of Data Collection Affect Consent to Data Linkage? By @AnnetteJackle @jburton123 Mick P. Couper, Thomas F. Crossley @SaWalzenbach https://ojs.ub.uni-konstanz.de/srm/article/view/7933
Consent rates online around 30 percentage points lower than face-to-face - but not due to selection of different types of respondent into each mode.
Using audio-recordings of the face-to-face interviews, we find that verbal behaviours of interviewers do not explain the mode effects: respondents only rarely ask questions or express concern, and interviewers only rarely offer additional information about the data linkage.
The devices respondents used to complete the web survey do not explain the mode effects either. Simplifying the consent request, by reducing the reading difficulty, increases understanding of the request, it does not increase consent in either mode.
Online respondents less likely to understand the data linkage request, less likely to process the consent request thoroughly, and more likely to be concerned
about privacy and data security.