If you're conducting research in the US, the demographic profiles of Ethnicity and Hispanic are available to target in the Custom audience builder of the Attest dashboard. These filters are only available in the US, if you are running research in other countries please read below.
If you have a research need that requires you to sample only specific ethnicities, you can use qualifying questions via Attest, but as you draft these questions we strongly recommend following the steps below.
We have several recommendations/steps that we encourage all of our clients to take when collecting sensitive information such as ethnicity. All of our recommendations are in line with the MRS guidelines:
If any sensitive data is to be collected in the survey, this must be made clear to the respondents upfront. At Attest, this can be done via the use of Text Cards which do not count towards the 40 question limit. Add a Text Card to forewarn respondents about upcoming sensitive topics or questions.
All respondents must be allowed to stop the interview at any point, which can also be made clear via the use of Text Cards.
Respondents need to be given the option to answer "Don't know" or "Prefer not to answer" when being asked sensitive questions. You can either include these as answer options, or enable the N/A button. Also, it is worth mentioning that all respondents are given the right to skip a question. This help article provides more clarity on this feature.
In the UK, Attest clients use questions such as "How would you best describe yourself?" or "Which of the following best describes your ethnicity?" when qualifying based on ethnicity. Here you can find the list of ethnic groups in the UK to provide.
If you have any questions about asking questions of a sensitive nature, don't hesitate to get in touch with the team using the in-platform live chat.