Acceptance of Smartphone Technologies for Social Science Data Collection

Project Directors Dr. Alexander Wenz Project Staff Wai Tak Tung Baden-Württemberg Stiftung-funded 2023 – 2026

Research question/goal:

The rising spread of smartphones among the general population offers empirical social research new opportunities for collecting data about attitudes and behaviours. Smartphones can be used to administer surveys and at the same time collect detailed behavioural data through the built-in sensors. However, a major challenge of smartphone-based data collection is the low willingness of the population to participate. Selective participation by certain subgroups of the population can lead to biased results.

This project will develop and test a theoretical framework of the social acceptance of smartphones as a data collection tool in empirical social research with the aim to improve the representativeness of smartphone-based studies. The main research questions are what social psychological factors explain the willingness to participate and what measures can be used to increase this willingness. The theoretical framework will be developed on the basis of a systematic review of technology acceptance theories and qualitative in-depth interviews with smartphone users. The results will subsequently be tested in the context of a smartphone data collection.

Current stage:

The results from a systematic review of the determinants of participation in smartphone-based data collection have been presented at international conferences and workshops. An article about the systematic review is about to be submitted to a peer-reviewed journal. Furthermore, the project team is preparing qualitative in-depth interviews with smartphone users about potential participation barriers in smartphone-based studies.

Publications

Presentations

  • Wenz, Alexander, Wai Tak Tung (2025): Using a Qualitative Approach to Better Understand Why People Are (Un)willing to Participate in Smartphone App Data Collection. [11th Conference of the European Survey Research Association (ESRA), Utrecht, 13/07/2025 - 17/07/2025]. More
  • Tung, Wai Tak, Alexander Wenz (2025): Comparing Scenario-Based and Self-Reported Measures of Smartphone Skills. [11th Conference of the European Survey Research Association (ESRA), Utrecht, 13/07/2025 - 17/07/2025]. More
  • Tung, Wai Tak, Alexander Wenz (2025): Scenario-Based Measures of Smartphone Skills in Online Surveys. [27. General Online Research Conference (GOR), Berlin, 30/03/2025 - 01/04/2025]. More
  • Tung, Wai Tak, Alexander Wenz (2024): Mechanisms of participation in smartphone app data collection: A research synthesis. [5th MASS Workshop, Washington, DC, 05/03/2024 - 06/03/2024]. More
  • Wenz, Alexander, Florian Keusch (2023): How to increase the acceptance of mobile app and sensor data collection?. [AAPOR 78th Annual Conference, Philadelphia, PA, 09/05/2023 - 11/05/2023]. More
  • Wenz, Alexander, Florian Keusch (2022): How to increase the acceptance of mobile app and sensor data collection?. [General Online Research (GOR 22), Berlin, 06/09/2022 - 08/09/2022]. More
  • Wenz, Alexander, Florian Keusch (2022): Wie lässt sich die Akzeptanz von Smartphone-Datenerhebungen erhöhen?. [Frühjahrstagung der Sektion Methoden der empirischen Sozialforschung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Soziologie (DGS), (virtual conference), 24/03/2022 - 25/03/2022]. More