Kurzbeschreibung

In online panels, emails are a crucial element for recruiting respondents. Email invitations may substantially affect panelists’ perception of the study's relevance, potentially influencing both response rates and sample composition. Previous research has examined the use of targeted appeals, where the wording in the invitation letter varies among pre-identified subgroups. In our study, we divide panelists into subgroups based on their self-stated motivations to participate. We then use these self-stated motivations to craft an appealing email invitation to recruit panelists for a subsequent wave. Based on Leverage-Saliency Theory, emphasizing the self-stated motivation in email invitations (Saliency) should have a positive effect on the panelists' response propensity, enhancing cooperation as well as reducing attrition within the panel. We implemented a survey experiment in the German online probability panel IAB-OPAL. In wave 3, we asked 10,246 panelists to state their main motivation for participation, choosing among seven different motivations: survey topic, incentive, giving opinion, informing politics, curiosity, helping science, feeling obligated. In wave 4, we randomly assigned panelist either to the standard invitation or to an invitation that aligns with one of the self-stated motivations. Our treatment included a different subject line as well as a motivational email text. Results show that our treatment did not improve cooperation or reduce attrition within the panel. On the contrary, for the motivations “giving opinion” and “informing politics”, our results show that aligning the wording of the invitation email with panelists’ self-stated motivations from the previous wave reduces response rates compared to the standard invitation email