TY - JOUR
T1 - Calling for participation
T2 - Requests, blocking moves, and rational (inter)action in survey introductions
AU - Maynard, Douglas W.
AU - Freese, Jeremy
AU - Schaeffer, Nora Cate
PY - 2010/10
Y1 - 2010/10
N2 - We draw on conversation analytic methods and research to explicate the interactional phenomenon of requesting in general and the specific case of requesting participation in survey interviews. Recent work on survey participation gives much attention to leverage-saliency theory but does not explore how the key concepts of this theory are exhibited in the actual unfolding interaction of interviewers and potential respondents. We examine interaction using digitally recorded and transcribed calls to recruit participation in the 2004 Wisconsin Longitudinal Study. We describe how potential respondents present interactional environments that are relatively discouraging or encouraging, and how, in response, interviewers may be relatively cautious or presumptive in their requesting actions. We consider how interviewers' ability to tailor their behavior to their interactional environments can affect whether an introduction reaches the point at which a request to participate is made, the form that this request takes, and the sample person's response. This article contributes to understanding the social action of requesting and specifically how we might use insights from analyses of interaction to increase cooperation with requests to participate in surveys.
AB - We draw on conversation analytic methods and research to explicate the interactional phenomenon of requesting in general and the specific case of requesting participation in survey interviews. Recent work on survey participation gives much attention to leverage-saliency theory but does not explore how the key concepts of this theory are exhibited in the actual unfolding interaction of interviewers and potential respondents. We examine interaction using digitally recorded and transcribed calls to recruit participation in the 2004 Wisconsin Longitudinal Study. We describe how potential respondents present interactional environments that are relatively discouraging or encouraging, and how, in response, interviewers may be relatively cautious or presumptive in their requesting actions. We consider how interviewers' ability to tailor their behavior to their interactional environments can affect whether an introduction reaches the point at which a request to participate is made, the form that this request takes, and the sample person's response. This article contributes to understanding the social action of requesting and specifically how we might use insights from analyses of interaction to increase cooperation with requests to participate in surveys.
KW - conversation analysis
KW - leverage-saliency theory
KW - rational choice
KW - requesting participation
KW - survey non-response
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U2 - 10.1177/0003122410379582
DO - 10.1177/0003122410379582
M3 - Article
C2 - 21691562
AN - SCOPUS:78149237431
SN - 0003-1224
VL - 75
SP - 791
EP - 814
JO - American Sociological Review
JF - American Sociological Review
IS - 5
ER -