People who provide an answer to telephone surveys typically listen to an intervi

Question

People who provide an answer to telephone surveys typically listen to an interviewer’s introductory remarks, and then decide if they want to continue or hang up. Suppose that a study made telephone calls to randomly selected households and asked about opinions for an upcoming election. To investigate responses, the interviewer sometimes gave her name, in others she identified the university she enrolled in, and in still others she identified both herself and her university. The study recorded the percentage of each group of interviews that was fully completed.
a) Is this telephone survey an example of an observational study or an experiment?
b) What are the explanatory and response variables for this survey?

Explanation / Answer

a)

In the survey, the researcher has control over the variables (information the interviewer provides before conducting the interview). Hence the survey is an experimental study.

b)

The explanatory variables for this survey is interviewer’s introductory remarks/information. The explanatory variables has levels - the interviewer gave her name, she identified the university she enrolled in, and she identified both herself and her university.

The response variables for this survey is percentage of interviews that was fully completed.

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