Effects of the Self-View Window in Live Video Survey Interviews

The studies reported here explore how the “self-view” window (a live video feed of oneself) affects live video survey respondents’ likelihood of disclosing sensitive information and their feelings about the interview. In Study 1 (2012), 124 laboratory respondents answered sensitive and nonsensitive questions taken from US government and social scientific surveys over Skype, either with or without a self-view window. Respondents randomly assigned to having a self-view disclosed no less sensitive information than those without a self-view, and on a few questions, they disclosed more (more frequent alcohol use and more sex partners). Self-view respondents also perceived the interview as less sensitive, and they reported less copresence with the interviewer, reduced self-consciousness, and greater comfort answering many of the sensitive questions. Study 2 (2017) replicates these findings in a second sample of 133 respondents by (a) tracking where video survey respondents look on the screen — at the interviewer, at the self-view, or elsewhere — while answering the same survey questions and (b) examining how gaze location and duration differ for sensitive vs. nonsensitive questions and for more and less socially desirable answers. Findings include that self-view respondents looked less at the self-view while answering sensitive (vs. nonsensitive) questions, and that respondents who looked more at the self-view window reported feeling less self-conscious and less worried about how they presented to the interviewer. Results demonstrate that the self-view can change respondents’ experience and where they look during a video interview. They also document, for the first time in video surveys, surprising individual variability in looking at the self-view, with some respondents never once looking and others looking at their self-view as much as 50% of the time. Attending to how self-view and respondents’ choices (e.g., turning it on or off) affect respondent experience and data quality will be important as live video surveys are increasingly deployed.