If you use BCC the receiver won't see any details in the "to:" field, and IMO that makes the email look much less personal. So I'm trying to avoid this.
Thanks.
BCC is good to use in order to protect privacy and prevent the recipient from seeing other people's emails (i.e., privacy policies often include statements that email addresses will not be shared with others).
People know that a survey is taken by many participants, so it doesn't really matter that the recipient cannot see the other addresses and that the email itself is general rather than personal. In fact, research methodology may require such contact to be impersonal rather than personal to minimize bias.
Your adviser/chair should be able to help you with more details, if needed.