The use of mail questionnaires to ascertain the relative popularity of network stations in family listening surveys

Abstract

A mail questionnaire dealing with preference in radio stations is more apt to be answered by the man in the family, who consults with other members of the family relative to the questionnaire, and who returns it only after some deliberation. A personal interview, on the other hand, is more apt to involve the responses of the wife, who answers for the whole family and does so on the spur of the moment. When the responses on a mailed questionnaire were compared with the reports of every member of the family in personal interviews, a marked similarity was found in terms of the mentions of each of the major networks. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)