OMB Memo

Census Bureau Opt-In Affinity Panel Survey

Submitted Under Generic Clearance for Internet Nonprobability Panel Pretesting and Qualitative Survey Methods Testing

(OMB #0607-0978)

Request: The Census Bureau plans to conduct additional research under the generic clearance for Internet Nonprobability Panel Pretesting and Qualitative Survey Methods Testing (OMB #0607-0978). We are requesting to conduct a survey using our Opt-In Affinity Panel. Our primary interests are testing questionnaire design strategies and investigating respondents’ behaviors and preferences related to survey incentives.

Purpose: The purpose of conducting this survey is to test questionnaire design strategies and investigate behaviors related to survey response, including:

• Comparing strategies for reducing the complexity of questions related to school lunch participation, types of income, and utilities;

• Comparing alternative designs for questions collecting the age of children less than one year old;

• Investigating respondents’ behaviors related to spending and receiving money in various ways (cash, credit cards, etc.) and their preferences for receiving incentives for survey participation.

Population of Interest: Residents of the United States.

Timeline: We intend to conduct this survey with the Census Bureau’s Opt-in Affinity Panel in November/December 2024. The survey will be open for a period of two weeks after the first email invitation is sent.

Sample: The Opt-in Affinity Panel includes email addresses from individuals who previously agreed to participate in Census Bureau research. We will contact respondents who agreed to participate in future research while responding to the most recent phase of the Household Pulse Survey, which was collected in July 2024, of which there are approximately 29,000 respondents who have opted-in. We plan to invite all of these respondents to participate in this survey.

Recruitment: Respondents will be invited to respond to the online survey by means of a series of emails containing a link to the survey (see Enclosure 2). For this study, each email address in the sample will receive a maximum of four notification emails.

Survey Administration: The questionnaire will be administered online using the survey platform Qualtrics. Respondents will receive an email invitation with a unique URL which will allow them to access the Qualtrics instrument.

Questionnaire: Respondents will be asked to complete a questionnaire containing standard demographic questions and test questions. The demographic questions are asked to determine eligibility for certain test questions as well as to collect data for future surveys from this sample. Enclosure 1 contains the questionnaire.

Informed Consent: We will inform participants that their response is voluntary and that the information they provide is confidential and will be accessed only by employees involved in the research project. Additional required notices about confidentiality and privacy are included on the first page of the survey.

Incentive: Participants will not receive any payment for their participation in the survey.

Length of Interview: We estimate that the survey will take an average of 15 minutes for each complete response, including time to read emails. Based on past experience with opt-in samples, we expect a 30% response rate or better from this sample. We will cap responses at 10,000 (34% response rate) in case our estimate of 30% is too low.

Thus, the maximum burden of this research is 2,500 hours (10,000 responses X 15 minutes / 60 = 2,500 hours).

The following documents are included as attachments:

Enclosure 1 - Affinity Panel November 2024 questionnaire

Enclosure 2 - Affinity Panel November 2024 email invitations

The contact person for questions regarding data collection and the design of this research is listed below:

Dave Tuttle

Center for Behavioral Science Methods

U.S. Census Bureau

Washington, D.C. 20233

(301) 763-7809

alfred.d.tuttle@census.gov

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