Recent efforts have sought to enhance traditional survey data by attempting to link third-party data with survey responses. Before linking these data, researchers have a legal and ethical obligation to obtain informed consent from the survey respondent. This is a necessary part of data linkage, but it also poses significant barriers. Respondents must decide whether to consent in the context of the survey interview, in which a degree of cognitive burden is introduced.  One survey manipulation that has been trialled and may relate to the impact of cognitive burden is the placement of the consent question.  Studies consistently show increases in consent rates when presenting the request earlier in a questionnaire. However, work to date has only manipulated the relative serial position of a consent request within a questionnaire, neglecting the actual time that has elapsed for the respondent. In complex surveys, which may include multiple instruments and extensive routing, using this solely as the indicator may mask the comparative burden on respondents when answering the consent request. Using Understanding Society Innovation Panel data, I present evidence that the actual position in which a consent request is presented varies widely in actual time within experimental groups, and that using actual time answering questions instead of relative serial position provides a more comprehensive, nuanced explanation to the placement effect in data linkage

Co-authors

Professor Tarek Al Baghal, University of Essex