The data comes from a project that empirically investigated one aspect of the concept of the "interview society": the spread of the experience of being interviewed (qualitative interviews). An online panel survey of a market research company was used that represents a sample of the Swiss population. In one round of this panel, two new questions were integrated that asked about this experience. In addition, the data also features various information on the respondents' socio-demographics. The project's goal was to highlight that a respective problematization of qualitative interviews is worthwhile: considering the spread of this method into society.
The first question reads as follows: “Have you ever been interviewed?” The respondents then could answer whether they had been interviewed in a scientific, market research, journalistic, and/or “other” context, or state that they had not been interviewed yet. The question was accompanied by a short statement explaining what should be understood as an interview. A pretest showed that this question was rather demanding. Therefore, the decision was made to use the second question not only to ask something different, but to also test the respondents’ answers.
“Have you ever been approached for an interview without taking part in it?” The answers followed again the logic of the first question (with the addition of an answer where respondents could state that they had participated in all interview requests). Additionally, the aforementioned statement was shown again. Through its formulation, the second question allowed the consideration of the answers to the first question, both for the respondents (as they had to think about the same issue once more) and later for the author (as it allowed a logical test of the answers to check for careless responding).
