Previous research has suggested that people who are willing to provide their telephone numbers may be more likely to provide good quality data. This study examined whether asking people for their phone number 1) at the beginning of a survey or or 2) at the end of a survey affects the results. And yes, it matters.

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Call Me Maybe:
Effects of asking for
telephone numbers
on survey honesty
Presented by Annie Pettit
Chief Research Officer at Peanut Labs

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Research Questions
Should you ask at
the beginning or the
end of the survey?
When To Ask
Will people endorse
more socially
desirable, charitable
behaviours?
Will people endorse
fewer illegal,
unethical, and
embarrassing
behaviours?
Social Desirability Illegal BehavioursCBA

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Method
Group 1
• Beginning
• Phone
number
request
was first
question
• N=500
Group 2
• End
• Phone
number
request was
last question
• N=500
Non-probability, incentivized research panel
Sampled and weighted to US census targets

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Question Categories
Compliment
employee
Bought
someone
coffee
Kind Charitable
Pee in
shower
Embarrassing
Called in
sick
Unethical
Listen to
music
Neutral
Impaired
driving
Illegal

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RESULTS
BEGINNING VS END

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Neutral
% of People Endorsing Neutral Behaviours

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Neutral
It doesn’t matter if you were asked at the beginning or the end,
endorsement rates for neutral behaviours were the same.
Average
Endorsement
Standard Deviation

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Charitable
Endorsement of charitable behaviours didn’t change if you were asked
at the beginning or the end.

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Embarrassing
Endorsement of embarrassing behaviours didn’t change if you were
asked at the beginning or the end.

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Illegal
Though there was more variability, endorsement of illegal behaviours
didn’t change if you were asked at the beginning or the end.

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or
makes
no
Beginning
difference
end
CONCLUSION

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RESULTS
AGREE VS DECLINE

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Method
Group 1
•Yes, here’s
my phone
number
•555-5555
Group 2
•No! You
can’t have
my phone
number
•BUG-OFFF

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Illegal
People who agree endorse more illegal behaviours

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Embarrassing
People who agree endorse more embarrassing behaviours

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Charitable
People who agree endorse more charitable behaviours

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Neutral
People who agree endorse more neutral behaviours

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or
makes a
Agreeing
difference
disagreeing
CONCLUSION

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RESULTS
INTERACTIONS

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Method
Group 1
Beginning
Decline
Group 2
End
Decline
Group 3
Beginning
Agree
Group 4
End
Agree

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Neutral Questions
Endorsement Rates Not Affected

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Agreers Are Confessors
Illegal Unethical Embarrass Kind Charitable Neutral Average

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the
and listen
If
agreers
beginning
you
want
honesty
ask
at
to
CONCLUSION

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Many new questions
• Type of PII: What if we asked for email or physical address
instead?
• Position of Ask: What if we ask half-way through? After an
embarrassing question?
• Survey Style: What if the entire survey is embarrassing?
• Screen Outs: What if everyone was told there would be
no screen-outs?

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Thank you!
Annie Pettit
Chief Research Officer
annie@peanutlabs.com
ca.linkedin.com/in/AnniePettit/
facebook.com/AnniePettit
twitter.com/LoveStats
Jonathan Cheriff
Director of Sales & Marketing
jonathan.cheriff@peanutlabs.com
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