Interviewer Behaviour and Interviewer Effects

Interviewers are a key part in data collection for face-to-face surveys. The involvement of interviewers in data collection activities means that desirable interviewer behaviour (DIB) is fundamental for collecting high quality and comparable data. All ESS countries are required to conduct face-to-face personal interviews (see Modes of data collection), which makes the promotion of DIB a fundamental part of the core survey activities. For this purpose, the ESS conducts research on:

The insights gained from this research will be used to implement measures for improving data quality. The research output is categorised in three areas, which are integrated into the survey life cycle:

As part of our continued work to encourage desirable interviewer behaviour, new indicators have been developed. One of those indicators is the Change of Virtual Surrounding tool. A presentation was delivered by May Dousak (University of Ljubljana) in September 2022 on how the tool works and how it can be implemented.