Assessing the Effects of Survey Instructions and Physical Attractiveness on Careless Responding in Online Surveys

The current study explored the effects of survey instructions (basic, warning, feedback) and survey administrator appearance (invisible administrator, higher attractiveness, lower attractiveness) on careless responding in online surveys. Undergraduate students (N = 527) were randomly assigned to one of nine experimental conditions and completed an online survey regarding personality, attitudes and experiences in University. Three two-way ANOVAs and one two-way ANCOVA were used in this study. Conscientiousness was used as a covariate and careless responding behavior was measured by total survey response time, response consistency, response patterns, and self-reported carelessness. The findings indicated that higher levels of conscientiousness were related to lower levels of self-reported carelessness, and that survey instructions and survey administrator appearance do have some influence on careless responding behavior