Persuasion Strategies for Reducing Refusal Rates in Telephone Surveys

The verbal interactions between interviewer and respondent of the introductory part of 85 telephone interviews were audiotaped and analyzed to investigate whether the respondent�s refusal or participation could be ascribed to differences in interviewing behavior. Content analysis showed that, among other things, refusing behavior appeared to depend on the kind of the requests made by the interviewer, and the amount of information provided by the interviewer.