Participants’ Reported Discomfort with Live Video as a Mode for Answering a Sensitive Survey Question

Abstract This study uses qualitative thematic analysis to explore a dataset of open-ended textual responses from 369 online panelists explaining why they rated feeling more or less uncomfortable being asked the same sensitive survey question (“How many sex partners have you had in the last 12 months?”) in a hypothetical live video interview versus in two other interviewer-administered survey modes (in person and by phone) and two self-administered survey modes (a web survey and a “prerecorded video” interview in which participants enter their answers after playing a video of the interviewer asking the question). Different participants reported finding the very same features of live video—for example, social copresence with the interviewer, seeing and being seen, a sense of privacy and anonymity—as leading to greater discomfort or greater comfort. The mixed-method analyses, which build on participants’ quantitative ratings of discomfort in the different modes, reveal video-specific concerns that are likely to be important to understand as video interviewing emerges as a new survey mode. These include the potential for a live video interview to be recorded and other household members to overhear (for some participants more concerning than in person or on the phone), and more nuanced distinctions about wanting to see or not see the interviewer and wanting to be seen or not be seen by the interviewer. Exploratory analyses suggest that participants’ video experience in other contexts and some demographic characteristics may correlate with different levels of self-reported discomfort with live video relative to other interviewing modes.