Qualitative Testing Incentive Preference Questions

To prepare for administration of incentive preference questions on the Census Bureau Research Panel, the Center for Behavioral Science Methods conducted a small set of cognitive interviews. These interviews collected some background on participants’ preferences for payment methods when buying various goods or services, gathered preliminary data on incentive preferences for two different amounts, and allowed further refinement of the quantitative survey questions to be fielded on the Research Panel. The broader goal of both the qualitative and quantitative research was to determine if “cash is still king”, in terms of incentives. In other words, do people in a post-Covid world still prefer cash incentives and if so, is that true for all subpopulations? For this small test, most participants were not carrying or using cash often and generally had specific things for which they used cash (e.g., tips). Receptivity to cash incentives was low, due to security concerns and the inconvenience of carrying it.