Typing or Speaking?

Comparing Text and Voice Answers to Open Questions on Sensitive Topics in Smartphone Surveys

authored by: Jan Karem Höhne, Konstantin Gavras, Joshua Claassen
Abstract: The smartphone increase in web surveys, coupled with technological developments, provides novel opportunities for measuring attitudes. For example, smartphones allow the collection of voice instead of text answers by using the built-in microphone. This may facilitate answering questions with open answer formats resulting in richer information and higher data quality. So far, there is only a little body of research investigating voice and text answers to open questions. In this study, we therefore compare the linguistic and content characteristics of voice and text answers to open questions on sensitive topics. For this purpose, we ran an experiment in a smartphone survey (N = 1001) and randomly assigned respondents to an answer format condition (text or voice). The findings indicate that voice answers have a higher number of words and a higher number of topics than their text counterparts. We find no differences regarding sentiments (or extremity of answers). Our study provides new insights into the linguistic and content characteristics of voice and text answers. Furthermore, it helps to evaluate the usefulness and usability of voice answers for future smartphone surveys.
Organisation(s): Sociology Department
External Organisation(s): Nesto Software GmbH
German Centre for Higher Education Research and Science Studies (DZHW)
Type: Article
Journal: Social science computer review
Volume: 42
Pages: 1066-1085
No. of pages: 20
ISSN: 0894-4393
Publication date: 08.2024
Publication status: Published
Peer reviewed: Yes
ASJC Scopus subject areas: General Social Sciences, Computer Science Applications, Library and Information Sciences, Law
Electronic version(s): https://doi.org/10.1177/08944393231160961 (Access: Open)

BibTeX

@article{eec55726a9644e9c8e7f629c929a6adb,
title = "Typing or Speaking?: Comparing Text and Voice Answers to Open Questions on Sensitive Topics in Smartphone Surveys",
abstract = "The smartphone increase in web surveys, coupled with technological developments, provides novel opportunities for measuring attitudes. For example, smartphones allow the collection of voice instead of text answers by using the built-in microphone. This may facilitate answering questions with open answer formats resulting in richer information and higher data quality. So far, there is only a little body of research investigating voice and text answers to open questions. In this study, we therefore compare the linguistic and content characteristics of voice and text answers to open questions on sensitive topics. For this purpose, we ran an experiment in a smartphone survey (N = 1001) and randomly assigned respondents to an answer format condition (text or voice). The findings indicate that voice answers have a higher number of words and a higher number of topics than their text counterparts. We find no differences regarding sentiments (or extremity of answers). Our study provides new insights into the linguistic and content characteristics of voice and text answers. Furthermore, it helps to evaluate the usefulness and usability of voice answers for future smartphone surveys.",
keywords = "automatic speech recognition, microphone, open question formats, response behavior, smartphone, text analytics, web surveys",
author = "H{\"o}hne, {Jan Karem} and Konstantin Gavras and Joshua Claassen",
note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} The Author(s) 2024.",
year = "2024",
month = aug,
doi = "10.1177/08944393231160961",
language = "English",
volume = "42",
pages = "1066--1085",
journal = "Social science computer review",
issn = "0894-4393",
publisher = "SAGE Publications Inc.",
number = "4",
}