Attention.

In some cases, as much as 9% of participants in self-report studies are extremely
inattentive (Maniaci & Rogge, 2014). Previous researchers have dealt with this problem
by removing inattentive participants from data analyses. A better solution would be to
prevent inattentive responding. Self-Determination Theory may provide an effective
approach to reducing inattentive responding, specifically by attempting to promote
autonomous motivation in research participants. Providing participants with personalized
feedback may increase participants’ autonomous motivation, which in turn may lead to
more attentive responding. Study 1 showed that participants who are interested in
feedback are more attentive throughout an online survey than participants who are not
interested in feedback. The next goal was to show through experimental manipulation
that emphasizing the opportunity to receive personalized feedback would decrease levels
of inattentive responding and increase autonomous motivation. No significant difference
occurred between groups in levels of inattention, nor in autonomous motivation.

Inattentive responding by research participants may decrease the reliability and validity of self-report measures. The current studies broaden the record of personality traits correlated with inattention by examining individual differences in attachment anxiety and avoidance among adults in romantic relationships. Based upon the characteristics typically exhibited by adults high on attachment avoidance, I expected an overlap between this personality trait and inattention, such that participants higher on attachment avoidance would exhibit higher levels of inattentive responding when answering self-report questions about their relationship. Two studies addressed this hypothesis using both self-report data from individuals and partner-report data from romantic couples to examine the association between a participant’s attachment avoidance and their level of inattentive responding while participating in research focusing on their romantic relationships. Self-reported attachment avoidance was associated with greater inattentive responding in both studies. However, partner-reported attachment avoidance was not significantly associated with inattentive responding in Study 2.