ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the extensive search of the literature dealing with interviewer bias and summarized our findings in articles in the Journal of Marketing and in the Journal of Marketing Research. The best ways to handle the refusal bias continue to be improvement of interviewer selection, training and supervision, and increasing the respondent's motivation to cooperate. The important areas of interviewer selection, training and control have recently been the subject of increased attention from at least a few researchers. In fact, various studies show that the situation with regard to interviewer bias may be much worse than had previously been thought - even for relatively simple studies. The 1964 study revealed progress in reducing errors in listing dwelling units, controlling the size and patterns of not-at-homes, and understanding the effects on data collection generated by race, caste, class, deference, age and sex.
