Unit Nonrespondents in a Taiwan Telephone Survey

Researchers have been perplexed by the issue of unit nonresponse since the beginning of practicing survey research and have been attentive to the causes that lead to the occurrence of unit nonresponse as well as the impact of unit nonresponse. However, because researchers have little to no information regarding unit nonrespondents, it is unlikely that they are able to examine the differences between participants and nonrespondents to estimate the loss of representativeness in the final sample compared with the target population. Therefore, the lack of information regarding the absentees complicates addressing the unit nonresponse bias in a satisfactory manner. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine the demographic characteristics and political attitudes of nonrespondents by relying on information provided by their spouses, which was obtained through a telephone survey conducted in Taiwan. It is found that demographic variables as well as political attitudes are related to the likelihood of an individual becoming a unit nonrespondent in telephone surveys.