The following describes the survey methodology of the 2016 Recontacts iteration of The Psychology Political Behavior Studies (PPBS). This report is meant to detail the utilized survey methodology and relevant, general purpose characteristics of both exploratory and confirmatory samples, as well as any extra samples and its combined version. The text is in APA Style and is akin to an APA-like ‘Methods Section’.
PPBS datasets are designed to have an exploratory, quota-based Nationally Representative sample (on Age, Education, Income and Sex), and a Confirmatory (Replication) convenience sample, from the same data source to avoid false positives. Some PPBS studies also have recontacts or extra-samples to answer additional specific research questions (e.g., 2nd Sample in 2016). All data’s coodbooks can be found at the bottom of the page, with a searchable feature allowing to find metadata within and between columns.
For more details, see PBBS’s Motivation.
| Sample 1 | Sample 1-B | |
|---|---|---|
| Election cycle | Recontacts of Pre-Election 2016 | [Standalone] Pre-Election 2016 |
| Type | Recontacts Convenience | [Standalone] Convenience |
| Survey Period (Start) | September 21st, 2018 | September 21st, 2018 |
| Survey Period (End) | October 9th, 2018 | October 9th, 2018 |
| Country | United States | United States |
| Attention Checks | Yes (7; various types) | Yes (7; various types) |
| Time Checks | Yes (5 page submit checks) | Yes (5 page submit checks) |
| CAPTCHA | Yes (begining of survey) | Yes (begining of survey) |
| Sample Size (N) | 814 | 841 |
| Length of Interview (MD) | 47.89 | 48.17 |
| Attrition (%) | 0.08 | 0.08 |
| Data Quality checks (%) | 0.07 | 0.07 |
| Note. As explained more thoroughly below (last paragraph), Sample 1 and Sample 1-B are equal except for 27 cases. |
In 2018, we re-hired Survey Sampling Incorporated (SSI; www.surveysampling.com), a market research firm that recruits participants from a panel of over 7 million U.S. citizens, to recruit a recontacts sample of 814 Americans (42.87% women) from its panel who 2 years prior had successfully completed the 2016 Psychology Political Behavior Studies (PPBS; from August 16 to September 17, 2016). The follow-up recontacts study took place in the months preceding the 2018 US Midterms Election (from September 21 to October 09, 2018). The time difference between the two surveys ranged from 738 to 782 days (M = 756.38, SD = 10.51), or a little over 2 years. All subjects participated successfully in both the 2016 and 2018 iteration of the The Psychology Political Behavior Studies (PPBS).
In addition to administering a much greater number and variety of political and psychological instruments (including full scales) than in other nationally representative surveys (such as ANES, GSS, and WVS), we took a number of steps to insure that the quality of the data would be especially high. These included following professional recommendations to minimize problems of careless responding and satisficing behavior in online survey studies (Meade & Craig, 2012). Specifically, we employed 7 random attention questions, 5 page-time controls, and a Captcha question at the beginning of the survey.
We sent SSI a total of 4039 IDs, of which 989 participants were directed to the survey (24.49%), and 908 of them finished the survey (attrition rate 8%). There were 67 (7%) participants who failed more than two attention checks or time-checks or finished the survey in under ~22 minutes and were therefore excluded. For the final sample of 814, participants who successfully completed all study materials had a completion time of 53.41 minutes on average (MD: 47.89min).
The age distribution of our sample was as follows: 18–24 years (3.32%), 25–34 (9.95%), 35–44 (15.48%), 45–54 (15.85%), 55–65 (21.13%), and older than 65 (34.28%). The ethnic breakdown was: White (86.86%), Black/African American (6.76%), Latino (3.56%), Asian/Pacific Islander (1.35%), Native American (0.74%), Middle Eastern (0.74%). In terms of religion, (68.92% identified as Christian, 0.12% as Muslim, 4.91% as Jewish,15.6% as either Atheist or Agnostic, 10.44% and responded they are not sure, religion not listed, or refused to answer. With respect to education, 1.47% declared their highest educational achievement to be less high school, 21.62% indicated High school graduate (includes equivalency), 32.92% chose some college ( or associate degree) or no higher-education degree, 29.48% indicated having a Bachelor’s degree, and finally, 14.5% indicated having received a Graduate or professional degree. The median income category was . The exact distribution of Income is as follows: Less $15,000 (11.06%), $15,000 to $24,999 (8.97%), $25,000 to $34,999 (9.58%), $35,000 to $49,999 (16.34%), $50,000 to $74,999 (21.13%), $75,000 to $99,999 (14.5%), $100,000 to $149,999 (10.32%) and $150,000 more (8.11%).
In 2018, we hired Survey Sampling Incorporated (SSI; www.surveysampling.com), a market research firm that recruits participants from a panel of over 7 million U.S. citizens, to recruit a convenience sample of 841 Americans (42.87% women) in the months preceding the 2018 US Midterms Election (from September 21 to October 09, 2018), hence, on average, a little over a 2 years time period. All subjects had already participated in the 2016 iteration of the The Psychology Political Behavior Studies (PPBS).
In addition to administering a much greater number and variety of political and psychological instruments (including full scales) than in other nationally representative surveys (such as ANES, GSS, and WVS), we took a number of steps to insure that the quality of the data would be especially high. These included following professional recommendations to minimize problems of careless responding and satisficing behavior in online survey studies (Meade & Craig, 2012). Specifically, we employed 7 random attention questions, 5 page-time controls, and a Captcha question at the beginning of the survey. A total of 989 participants were directed to the survey, and 908 of them finished the survey (attrition rate 8%). There were 67 (7%) participants who failed more than two attention checks or time-checks or finished the survey in under ~22 minutes and were therefore excluded. For the final sample of 841, participants who successfully completed all study materials had a completion time of 53.53 minutes on average (MD: 48.17min).
The age distribution of our sample was as follows: 18–24 years (3.32%), 25–34 (9.95%), 35–44 (15.48%), 45–54 (15.85%), 55–65 (21.13%), and older than 65 (34.28%). The ethnic breakdown was: White (86.86%), Black/African American (6.76%), Latino (3.56%), Asian/Pacific Islander (1.35%), Native American (0.74%), Middle Eastern (0.74%). In terms of religion, (68.92% identified as Christian, 0.12% as Muslim, 4.91% as Jewish,15.6% as either Atheist or Agnostic, 10.44% and responded they are not sure, religion not listed, or refused to answer. With respect to education, 1.47% declared their highest educational achievement to be less high school, 21.62% indicated High school graduate (includes equivalency), 32.92% chose some college ( or associate degree) or no higher-education degree, 29.48% indicated having a Bachelor’s degree, and finally, 14.5% indicated having received a Graduate or professional degree. The median income category was . The exact distribution of Income is as follows: Less $15,000 (11.06%), $15,000 to $24,999 (8.97%), $25,000 to $34,999 (9.58%), $35,000 to $49,999 (16.34%), $50,000 to $74,999 (21.13%), $75,000 to $99,999 (14.5%), $100,000 to $149,999 (10.32%) and $150,000 more (8.11%). Please note that these demographic distributions are approximate, as for 27 participants (3%) due to lack of matching IDs, demographics data were not collected.
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