ESRA 2027 sessions by theme
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How Respondents Tick: Uncovering the impact of respondent personality at different stages of the data collection and analysis process |
| Coordinator 1 | Dr Rebecca Scheffauer (DIW Berlin) |
Session Details
Personality has been a popular topic in research for decades. Considering that a respondent’s personality shapes decision-making, behaviour, and by extension life courses, the continued interest is unsurprising. Items capturing personality traits are included in (panel-) surveys far and wide, allowing researchers to investigate the impact of personality on a variety of outcomes. In addition, one line of investigation in this regard has instead focussed on how personality shapes not other outcomes of interest, but how people behave in a research context (participation, response patterns, etc.). Considering changes currently shaping the survey landscape, it is more important than ever to understand those who (potentially) participate well. We invite researchers to submit contributions investigating the impact of respondents’ personality across the survey process.
Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:
• Participatory Personalities: are there certain types of personalities more prone to contributing to research?
• How do we measure personality: Surveys typically rely on self-reported measurements. As new types of data are continuously integrated into studies, are there other ways to gauge personality? How do those compare? How does this look across countries?
• Personality fuelled Response Patterns: are there certain personality more prone to desirable or undesirable survey response behavior?
• Personality and Sample Composition: How does personality shape sample composition over time? How can potential bias be corrected for?
• Personality and new developments: AI is becoming more prevalent in daily life as well as in research. Are there certain personality profiles more likely to engage with studies that incorporate AI?
For this session, the aim is to bring together researchers interested in the effect of personality in the research process to discuss respondent profiles, the impact on samples as well as future directions on how to best leverage this knowledge.
