Replication Code: Respondents Preferred Survey Topics. Measurement and Prevalence. Survey Research Methods.
Gummer, T.; Bartholomäus, S.; and Weiss, B.
19.01.2026

Respondents’ interest in a survey’s topic is used frequently by survey researchers to explain and predict survey errors. Whether respondents are interested in a survey’s content relates to their participation and cognitive answering processes, which consequently impacts nonresponse and measurement errors. Since the content of a survey is under the control of the researchers who design and conduct it, the content could be varied to improve participation and answering behavior. Unfortunately, research is lacking as to (i) how to measure these preferences, (ii) whether groups of respondents differ in their topic preferences, and (iii) the topic preferences in the social science survey samples. We have addressed this research gap by presenting the findings of three experimental studies that we conducted. In our study, we validated a measurement instrument to assess respondents’ topic interests. Moreover, we found that topic preferences varied between samples and respondent subgroups. However, across samples we consistently found that respondents were more interested in answering questions on personal rather than political topics. Based on our empirical findings, we provide practical recommendations for survey research and outline future research opportunities.

The ReplicationFile[1-3].html files contain all analyses reported in the cited article for the respective study. The published R.Rmd files allow users to replicate the results. To reproduce the analyses, please follow these steps: 
1. For each study, the corresponding R.Rmd files should be located in the scripts folder and the data set should be located in the data folder inside each study directory (e.g., study1/scripts and study1/data for study 1). 
2. Required R packages are listed and loaded in 01am_[study].Rmd (e.g., 01am_pre for study 1). Please review this file to ensure that all necessary packages are installed before proceeding. Note that running this file will automatically create all required subfolders for the workflow. 
3. For the files 02dp_[study].Rmd (e.g., 02dp_pre for study 1), specify the path to the required data set in the first code chunk. 
4. After making any necessary adjustments, you only need to run 05re[study].Rmd (05re_pre for study 1). This file will source all other scripts and reproduce the analyses and results as described in the project. 

Required data sets: 
1. Bartholomäus, S., and Gummer, T. (2025). PrADePS Pretest (SDN-10.7802-2635; Version 1.0.0) [Data set]. https://doi.org/10.7802/2635 GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences (2024). 
2. GESIS Panel - Standard Edition (ZA5665; Version 54.0.0) [Data set]. https://doi.org/10.4232/1.14386
3. The data set for study 3 is included in the replication files and should be cited accordingly. 

