This article provides a meta-analysis of studies using the crosswise model (CM) in estimating the prevalence of sensitive characteristics in different samples and populations. On a data set of 141 items published in 33 either articles or books, we compare the difference (Δ) between estimates based on the CM and a direct question (DQ). The overall effect size of Δ is 4.88; 95% CI [4.56, 5.21]. The results of a meta-regression indicate that Δ is smaller when general populations and nonprobability samples are considered. The population effect suggests an education effect: Differences between the CM and DQ estimates are more likely to occur when highly educated populations, such as students, are studied. Our findings raise concerns to what extent the CM is able to improve estimates of sensitive behavior in general population samples.

本文提供了使用交叉模型（CM）估算不同样本和人群中敏感特征的普遍性的研究的荟萃分析。在33篇文章或书籍中发布的141个项目的数据集上，我们比较了基于CM和直接问题（DQ）的估计之间的差异（Δ）。Δ的整体效果大小为4.88；95％CI [4.56，5.21]。元回归的结果表明，当考虑一般总体和非概率样本时，Δ较小。人口效应表明教育效应：研究诸如学生等受过高等教育的人口时，CM和DQ估计之间的差异更有可能发生。我们的发现引起关注的程度是，CM在多大程度上能够改善一般人群样本中敏感行为的估计。