"Other, please specify": Analyzing Open-ended Responses for Sociodemographic Questions |
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| Coordinator 1 | Ms Christina Pao (Princeton University) |
For many key sociodemographic characteristics of interest (such as gender, sexual orientation, race, and ethnicity), survey designers have taken on a mixed format or fully open-ended response design to allow respondents to write in their identities in a free-text box. Often times, this space encourages respondents to "please specify" or provide "detailed" information. Though these free-text boxes are often included to promote inclusivity, many researchers exclude the content of these free-text responses or censor those selecting "other" from their samples due to small cell sizes. In this session, we will discuss papers that utilize these free-text responses and describe their challenges and opportunities.