title: Who pays attention in stated-choice surveys?
abstract: Responses of inattentive or inconsistent subjects in stated-choice (SC) surveys can lead to imprecise or biased estimates. Several SC studies have investigated inconsistency and most of these studies dropped subjects who were inconsistent. However, none of these studies reported who is more likely to fail consistency tests. We investigated the effect of the personal characteristics and task complexity on preference inconsistency in eight different SC surveys. We found that white, higher-income and better-educated female subjects were less likely to fail consistency tests. Understanding the characteristics of subjects who are inattentive to the choice task may help in designing and pre-testing instruments that work effectively for a wider range of subjects.
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, University of North Caroline at Chapel Hills, NC 27709-2194, USA.
authors.forename: Semra
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ozdemir
authors.forename: Ateesha F
authors.initials: AF
authors.lastname: Mohamed
authors.forename: F Reed
authors.initials: FR
authors.lastname: Johnson
authors.forename: A Brett
authors.initials: AB
authors.lastname: Hauber
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002755:Choice Behavior; D003258:Consumer Behavior; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D019538:Health Care Surveys / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015203:Reproducibility of Results