Exploring consumers' answers to survey questions: Are uninformed responses truly uninformed?

Researchers have observed that consumers often give answers to questions about which they are uninformed. Drawing from work in cognitive psychology, this research explores why, how, and when consumers answer survey questions about which they are uninformed. Results from a telephone survey of 1348 consumers suggest that the effects of stimulus factors designed to increase item response rates (pressure to respond in the introduction to the survey, absence of a DK option) are moderated by consumers' familiarity with other similar-sounding attitude objects. Implications for future research are discussed. (C) 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.