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Bystanders and response bias in face-to-face surveys in Africa
International Journal of Social Research Methodology ( IF 3.468 ) Pub Date : 2021-03-01 , DOI: 10.1080/13645579.2021.1886397
Zack Zimbalist 1
Affiliation  

ABSTRACT

Public attitude surveys provide invaluable data for assessing perceptions, values, and attitudes across societies and over time. Ideally, respondents feel secure to disclose accurate information (avoiding reporting bias and item non-response) in the context of a face-to-face interview. Yet, survey research seldom accounts for peer effects caused by bystanders. The existing research focuses primarily on the effects of parents and spouses on self-reporting illicit activities or marriage-related issues. Using survey data from the Afrobarometer, this paper finds that bystanders, especially non-familial ones, substantially affect responses to an array of questions (some sensitive and some not), which are typically consistent with a socially desirable response. In parallel, both family and non-family bystanders also increase the rate of ‘don’t know’ responses relative to private interviews. These findings provide further support for designing new approaches to secure private interviews and implementing alternative techniques in face-to-face survey methods to limit bias and capture ‘true’ opinions.



中文翻译:

非洲面对面调查中的旁观者和反应偏见

摘要

公众态度调查提供了宝贵的数据,用于评估整个社会和一段时间内的看法、价值观和态度。理想情况下,受访者在面对面访谈的情况下能够安全地披露准确的信息(避免报告偏见和项目不回复)。然而,调查研究很少考虑旁观者造成的同伴效应。现有研究主要关注父母和配偶对自我报告的非法活动或婚姻相关问题的影响。使用来自非洲晴雨表的调查数据,本文发现旁观者,尤其是非家庭旁观者,会极大地影响对一系列问题(有些敏感,有些不敏感)的反应,这些问题通常与社会期望的反应一致。在平行下,相对于私人采访,家庭和非家庭旁观者也增加了“不知道”的回答率。这些发现为设计新方法以确保私人访谈和在面对面调查方法中实施替代技术以限制偏见和捕捉“真实”意见提供了进一步的支持。

更新日期:2021-03-01
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