Measuring Response Bias in Surveys

Last registered on December 26, 2025
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Measuring Response Bias in Surveys
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0017405
Initial registration date
December 09, 2025

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published
December 26, 2025, 1:47 AM EST

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Locations

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Primary Investigator

Name
Nagore Iriberri
Affiliation
University of the Basque Country, UPV-EHU, and IKERBASQUE, Basque Foundation for Science
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Laura Hospido
PI Affiliation
Bank of Spain and CEMFI
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Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2025-12-15
End date
2026-02-23
Keywords
Behavior, Gender, Labor
Additional Keywords
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
Surveys to measure perceptions and experiences are frequent nowadays in many professional settings. These surveys are administered via email that invite individuals to participate in them and therefore response rates are overall low. More worrying, as their results rely on answers by those individuals who have self-selected into participation, response bias is a serious concern. This field experiment proposes randomizing individuals into two main groups, such that a control group receives an email inviting individuals to participate in them, as it is usually the case, while the treatment group finds the survey embedded within a professional task. The control group is at the same time randomized into having a reminder email and no having the reminder email. The survey is always the same. Comparing the demographics and answers across these three groups allow us to measure the existence of response bias and its consequences.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Hospido, Laura and Nagore Iriberri. 2025. "Measuring Response Bias in Surveys." AEA RCT Registry. December 26. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.17405-1.0
Sponsors & Partners

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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Individuals who self-select in a professional activity are randomized into two groups:

1. Treatment (survey embeded within the profesional task): the survey is embeded in the professional task such that all individuals who decide to do the task are directed to the survey as part of the profesional task.
2. Control group (survey received by email after the professional task is completed). Within this control group, there is also randomization between receiving a reminder email and not receiving it.
Intervention Start Date
2025-12-15
Intervention End Date
2026-02-23

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
All questions included in the short survey.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
Individuals who self-select in a professional activity are randomized into two groups:

1. Treatment (survey embeded within the profesional task): the survey is embeded in the professional task such that all individuals who decide to do the task are directed to the survey as part of the profesional task.
2. Control group (survey received by email after the professional task is completed). Within this control group, there is also randomization between receiving a reminder email and not receiving it.
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
Randomization is done in office by a computer.
Randomization Unit
Individuals who self-select into a specific professional activity.
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
Approximately 2000 individuals.
Sample size: planned number of observations
Approximately 2000 individuals.
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
About 1000 in the control group and about 1000 in the treatment group.
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Ethics Committee at CEMFI
IRB Approval Date
2025-12-01
IRB Approval Number
N/A
Analysis Plan