Research Brief: Paying Respondents for Data

Does Paying or Compensating Survey Respondents Negatively Affect Response Quality or Reliability?

At We All Count, we think a lot about how to increase the equity of the data gathering process. We make a living off of the data science ecosystem and so do many of our project members and the people who read these posts. We all know that data is valuable, bringing us to an interesting question: should we be paying for it when we collect it?

The opinions about this vary widely between sectors and industries that use data. We’ve worked with a social-sector program evaluation firm that would immediately discount any survey data where the respondents were paid because it was felt that it would be hopelessly skewed by misplaced incentives. We’ve worked with data-oriented marketing firms that would consider any unpaid responses to be junk, as the respondents weren’t properly incentivized to provide accurate, careful answers.

We all like simple yes or no answers, but We All Count isn’t about yes or no. The truth is that sometimes it may be the equitable thing to do and sometimes it may not be.

We All Count is going to continue to explore this question, and the first step we’ve taken is to start assembling a research brief of the wide range…