Strong opinions

Original title: Robuuste meningen?

In 2004 a number of improvements were made to the fieldwork for Cultural Changes (Culturele Veranderingen), a long-term survey of Dutch public opinion carried out by SCP. Greater efforts were made to reach sample units at home and to persuade them to cooperate in the survey. After making such a change, it is important to determine whether the cooperation by these initial refusers and hard-to-reach respondents leads to different results, and whether differences between the results from 2002 and 2004 are due to changes in society or in the fieldwork. In Strong opinions, the effects of the improved fieldwork strategy are analysed.
The hard-to-reach respondents who ultimately took part in the 2004 survey are found to differ slightly in a number of respects from the easy-to-reach respondents. However, their ultimate participation had little effect on the conclusions of the 2004 Cultural Changes survey. On the other hand, it may be that the results produced a distorted picture because people who are absolutely unwilling to take part may differ from people who - sometimes after several attempts - do cooperate. This is something that warrants further investigation.