A Note on Increases in Inattentive Online Survey-Takers Since 2020

Lucid, a popular source of online convenience survey samples, has seen significant increase in inattentive respondents since 2020. Inattentive participants – who incorrectly answer directed query attention check questions may be introducing substantial measurement error and attenuation bias. Using data from 152,967 across multiple studies conducted between January 2020 June 2021, we find that report less reliable demographic data, stable responses, are systematically different attentive respondents. We some evidence bias mixed quality decreased slightly even after filtering for conclude researchers using Lucid should if they screened on attentiveness consider replicating any null results. Such an unexpected inattentiveness widely-used platform suggests future relying samples continuously assess quality.