Contingent Incentives

Past research has shown that contingent incentives can be used in survey research as a way of increasing survey response rates. The concept of contingent versus noncontingent incentives is that a noncontingent incentive is given to the respondent regardless of whether the survey task is completed, whereas giving a contingent incentive is dependent on the respondent's completion of the survey task, such as completing and returning the questionnaire in a mail survey. Contingent incentives are most commonly used with phone and Internet surveys, although they can be used with any mode of [Page 145]survey data collection. Usually the researcher will use the promise of the incentive as an inducement to coax the respondent into completing the survey, because the respondent does not receive the contingent ...