NCJ Number
166384
Journal
Journal of Applied Social Psychology Volume: 27 Issue: 3 Dated: (1997) Pages: 209-222
Date Published
1997
Length
14 pages
Annotation
This article examines the effects of a procedure designed to increase motivation to give accurate reports of socially sensitive behaviors frequently collected in surveys.
Abstract
Respondents were assigned at random to a bogus pipeline condition, in which they were told that inaccurate answers could be detected by a physiological recording device, or to a control condition. Respondents in both conditions were interviewed with a questionnaire that contained 19 items ranging from smoking and exercise frequency to number of sexual partners and illicit drug use. While the bogus pipeline procedure generally increased the reporting of sensitive behavior, in one instance it reduced the proportion of respondents who reported a socially desirable behavior (exercising), indicating the respondents were motivated to respond accurately and not just to report more occurrences. The article presents three interpretations of this result: (1) Respondents in the bogus pipeline condition were no more accurate than respondents in the control condition, but their errors took the form of overreporting; (2) Survey reports in face-to-face interviews about sensitive topics are distorted by deliberate misreporting; and (3) Respondents in the bogus pipeline condition were motivated to use more thorough and complete recall or more accurate estimation processes to arrive at their answers. Tables, references