The American Community Survey (ACS) is an ongoing and mandatory household survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau that collects essential information about states, local areas, and communities on an annual basis. Data collected in the ACS help to determine how more than $400 billion in federal and state funds are allocated across the nation each year. The ACS samples approximately 295,000 households each month, and responses are collected primarily through self -administered web or mail surveys, with non-response follow-up efforts conducted by telephone and in-person interview. However, with declining rates of self-response to this survey, there has been an increase in the use of costly follow-up efforts to obtain responses (Walker, 2015).

In an attempt to learn more about how to reverse this trend, we conducted research to identify messages that effectively educate Americans on the importance and legitimacy of the ACS, and encourage self-response to the survey. The U.S. Census Bureau contracted with the Gallup Organization to collect survey responses on a nightly basis to assess respondents’ stated willingness to participate in the ACS after being presented with a series of messages intended to convey the relevance of the survey and motivate self-response. The Gallup survey also captured information on respondents’ attitudes toward trust, privacy, and confidentiality as they relate to federal statistics. This research investigated the relationship between respondents’ stated willingness to participate in the ACS given the different motivational messages presented, and their attitudes toward trust, privacy, and confidentiality. This helps to identify which motivational messages resonate most with respondents to encourage participation, and whether the preferred motivational message differs by attitudes toward privacy, confidentiality, and trust as they relate to federal statistics and the federal statistical system.