Multitasking during an online survey: Prevalence, predictors and impact on data quality

Abstract

Recent studies show the high prevalence of respondents who perform other activities while responding questionnaires. Due to the scarcity of studies and the possible impact of multitasking on the quality of data, this paper analyses the percentage of respondents who multitask, and examines the most frequent secondary activities engaged in during an online survey conducted with panelists in Spain (N = 1,007). It also analyses a series of variables that are associated with different forms of multitasking and examines the effects of this on the quality of the data. The findings showed a high prevalence of multitaskers (39.7%). In addition, it was found that the profile of the participants varied according to the type of activity they carried out. The effect of multitasking on the quality of the data was limited.