Asking sensitive questions: possibilities and limits of randomized response and other techniques in different survey modes

• Applicants: Professor Dr. Andreas Diekmann; Professor Dr. Peter Preisendörfer; Professor Dr. Thomas Voss
• Subject Area: Empirical Social Research
• Term: from 2008 to 2013
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 65656347

Many surveys include sensitive questions , i.e. questions that pertain to private or illegal behavior or socially frowned-upon attitudes. Respondents misreport on sensitive topics in order to avoid painful feelings of embarrassment in the interview situation or repercussions from third parties beyond the interview setting. As a consequence, survey estimates are often erroneous and distorted by bias. The goal of the project is to develop, compare and evaluate different techniques and strategies of asking sensitive questions in three different survey modes: face-to-face, telephone and online-surveys. Altogether, the aim of the project is to establish a research program on sensitive questions in Germany.During the ongoing first two years of the project (2008–2009), we compared different variants of the randomized response technique (RRT) with other question techniques regarding reduction of non-response and response bias. One challenge is to develop appropriate RRTformats for each survey mode. Because these tasks are being carried out as outlined in the research proposal for the first funding period, during the next two years we intend to continue our research along four main lines: (1) Theoretical aspects of the interviewer-respondent interaction and statistical considerations regarding the trade-off between anonymity and statistical power will be worked out to further refine and test different question techniques. This also includes the development of software for the analysis of interviewer (context) effects in RRT-data. (2) The validation study in Mainz will be continued and extended. By comparing data from face-to-face interviews with administrative court records, this study enables an external validation of the measurement instruments. (3) Mode effects will be investigated by means of a sensitive-questions survey using the access panel developed by the research group lead by Uwe Engel (in Bremen; also part of the DFG priority programme 1292). (4) An experimental survey will investigate the viability of the Item Count Technique (ICT) in the telephone survey mode.

• DFG Programme: Priority Programmes
• Subproject of: SPP 1292: Survey Methodology
• International Connection: Switzerland
• Participating Person: Professor Dr. Karl-Dieter Opp