The Use of QR Codes to Encourage Participation in Mail Push-To-Web Surveys: An Evaluation of Experiments from 2015 and 2022.

This article examines the impact of including Quick Response (QR) codes in mail push-to-web survey invitations on response rates, device usage, and respondent demographics in the United States. Two experiments, conducted in 2015 and 2022, compared survey invitations with and without QR codes, finding that while the 2015 inclusion of QR codes did not significantly affect response rates, the 2022 inclusion led to a modest but statistically significant increase in overall response rates and a higher proportion of Hispanic respondents. The presence of QR codes also significantly increased survey completions via mobile devices without causing choice paralysis or negatively affecting sample composition. These findings suggest that QR codes are a cost-effective and operationally simple tool to enhance participation in mail push-to-web surveys, particularly as smartphone adoption and familiarity with QR technology have grown.