[Air-L] Alternative to Amazon gift card for incentives

[Liz Crocker]

We try to compensate participants for their time if possible since we're
asking them to do labor for us. It's true that incentives can bias who
responds but the ethics of compensation outweighed our concern about that.
Our challenge is that it needs to be something everyone can use
so in-person retail stores don't always work (ex: not everyone has a
WholeFoods nearby.) We also wanted something with a lot of options so that
it was truly useful to everyone (ex: not just Barnes and Noble.) Economics
studies suggest gift cards (or other tangible rewards that aren't just
cash) often motivate more in short-term scenarios than cash. That includes
VISA or MasterCard options so that's what we often used. Though like
someone else noted it does come with a processing fee. We've also done
Target gift cards, which have a decent online retail site.

On Thu, Aug 5, 2021 at 5:01 PM S.A. Applin <sally at sally.com> wrote:

> It isn’t always true that someone who is wealthy wouldn’t want to
> participate. Sometimes they do.
>
> Alternately, with no incentive, people for whom time is a
> by-the-hour-compensation issue, may be more willing to.
>
> I understand that for government it would be different.
>
> I’m glad there is more discussion in the list archives.
>
> When I did my dissertation, my research subjects were more interested in
> being heard than being compensated, and that was interesting in itself.
>
> Sally
>
>
> > On Aug 5, 2021, at 1:48 PM, Peter Timusk <peterotimusk at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > Just mentioning again ( this topic is discussed in the list archives) the
> > luxury of working in government surveys that while some of our surveys
> are
> > legal mandatory to respond to many are voluntary and we offer no
> incentive
> > at all.
> >
> > There are possible biases introduced with incentives. Example: someone
> who
> > is wealth will not reply because a 50$ Amazon gift card is not worth it.
> >
> > In government surveys too, we can not favour any private businesses, so
> > gift cards to businesses are not going to work.
> >
> > My suggestions for more neutral unbiased survey work.
> >
> > Peter not speaking for my employer Statistics Canada
> >
> > On Thu., Aug. 5, 2021, 11:23 a.m. Hara, Noriko, <nhara at indiana.edu>
> wrote:
> >
> >> Hello all,
> >>
> >> I am wondering if anyone can recommend any alternatives to Amazon gift
> >> cards for providing incentives for study participants.
> >>
> >> Any suggestions would be appreciated,
> >>
> >> Noriko
> >>
> >> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> >>    Noriko Hara, Ph.D. |   https://norikohara.org<
> https://norikohara.org/>
> >>    Professor
> >>    Department of Information & Library Science
> >>    Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, & Engineering
> >>    Indiana University
> >>
> >>
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