DOES THE HIGH HURDLE TECHNIQUE AFFECT WEB-SURVEY RESULTS?

The high hurdle technique is one of the strategies for controlling dropout in web-surveys. Using the high hurdle technique, it is attempted to cause dropout of less motivated participants as early as possible, with intentionally and artificially caused delay in loading of the first page of the webquestionnaire. Therefore, it is expected that those participants who, in spite of the waiting period, continue to fill in the questionnaire, will be more motivated, and because of that their answers will be of higher quality. So far very few studies and papers regarding the high hurdle technique (and similar techniques) have been published, and the obtained results are unclear and/or opposed. This article describes the research investigating the effects of the high hurdle technique on a web-survey on the sample of 235 students of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Rijeka. A web-questionnaire measuring general attitudes towards the Internet was applied. Specifically, two versions of the webquestionnaire were used, one with a delayed loading of the first page, as experimental condition, and one without delay as a control. The effects of the delay were established for dropout rate, but not for content of the responses or for responding speed.The application of the delay resulted in a significant decrease in the number of participants who began answering the questionnaire. However, since participants who began responding to the questionnaire in spite of the delay finished filling the questionnaire in a significantly higher percentage than control participants, the number of completely filled questionnaires did not differ between the groups.