Week 4: Sensitive Questions
Overview
When surveys deal with sensitive topics, there is a chance that respondents conceal the truth in their answers. We call this sensitivity bias. This week, we review research designs that seek to reduce sensitivity biases by asking sensitive questions indirectly. Asking indirect questions takes attention away from the sensitive attitude of interest and ensures respondent anonymity.
The takeaway for this week is that these techniques reduce sensitivity bias, but they do so at the expense of statistical precision, so they may not always improve our ability to measure sensitive attitudes and behaviors. We illustrate this point in the lab.
Reading
Blair, Graeme. 2015. “Survey Methods for Sensitive Topics.” Comparative Politics Newsletter 12 (44): 12-16
Creighton, Matthew J. and Amaney Jamal. 2015. “Does Islam play a role in anti-immigrant sentiment? An experimental approach.” Social Science Research 53 (1): 89-103
Oliveros, Virginia and Daniel W. Gingerich. 2020. “Lying About Corruption in Surveys: Evidence from a Joint Response Model.” International Journal of Public Opinion Research 32 (2): 384-395
Slides
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Lab
Monday, February 5, 5 PM