scholarly journals Controlling social desirability bias: An experimental investigation of the extended crosswise model

PLoS ONE ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (12) ◽  
pp. e0243384 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia Meisters ◽  
Adrian Hoffmann ◽  
Jochen Musch
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Investigation ◽  
Social Desirability ◽  
Personal Attributes ◽  
Direct Question ◽  
Questioning Techniques ◽  
Careless Responding ◽  
Sensitive Attribute ◽  
Systematic Response ◽  
Crosswise Model ◽  
Response Biases

Indirect questioning techniques such as the crosswise model aim to control for socially desirable responding in surveys on sensitive personal attributes. Recently, the extended crosswise model has been proposed as an improvement over the original crosswise model. It offers all of the advantages of the original crosswise model while also enabling the detection of systematic response biases. We applied the extended crosswise model to a new sensitive attribute, campus islamophobia, and present the first experimental investigation including an extended crosswise model, and a direct questioning control condition, respectively. In a paper-pencil questionnaire, we surveyed 1,361 German university students using either a direct question or the extended crosswise model. We found that the extended crosswise model provided a good model fit, indicating no systematic response bias and allowing for a pooling of the data of both groups of the extended crosswise model. Moreover, the extended crosswise model yielded significantly higher estimates of campus Islamophobia than a direct question. This result could either indicate that the extended crosswise model was successful in controlling for social desirability, or that response biases such as false positives or careless responding have inflated the estimate, which cannot be decided on the basis of the available data. Our findings highlight the importance of detecting response biases in surveys implementing indirect questioning techniques.

scholarly journals Nothing but the truth? Effects of faking on the validity of the crosswise model

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (10) ◽  
pp. e0258603
Author(s):  
Adrian Hoffmann ◽  
Julia Meisters ◽  
Jochen Musch
Keyword(s):  
Road Traffic ◽  
Self Presentation ◽  
Direct Question ◽  
Questioning Techniques ◽  
Prevalence Estimates ◽  
Personal Attitudes ◽  
Fake Good ◽  
Crosswise Model ◽  
Sensitive Issues ◽  
Traffic Behavior

In self-reports, socially desirable responding threatens the validity of prevalence estimates for sensitive personal attitudes and behaviors. Indirect questioning techniques such as the crosswise model attempt to control for the influence of social desirability bias. The crosswise model has repeatedly been found to provide more valid prevalence estimates than direct questions. We investigated whether crosswise model estimates are also less susceptible to deliberate faking than direct questions. To this end, we investigated the effect of “fake good” instructions on responses to direct and crosswise model questions. In a sample of 1,946 university students, 12-month prevalence estimates for a sensitive road traffic behavior were higher and thus presumably more valid in the crosswise model than in a direct question. Moreover, “fake good” instructions severely impaired the validity of the direct questioning estimates, whereas the crosswise model estimates were unaffected by deliberate faking. Participants also reported higher levels of perceived confidentiality and a lower perceived ease of faking in the crosswise model compared to direct questions. Our results corroborate previous studies finding the crosswise model to be an effective tool for counteracting the detrimental effects of positive self-presentation in surveys on sensitive issues.

scholarly journals Do they really wash their hands? Prevalence estimates for personal hygiene behaviour during the COVID-19 pandemic based on indirect questions

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Mieth ◽  
Maike M. Mayer ◽  
Adrian Hoffmann ◽  
Axel Buchner ◽  
Raoul Bell
Keyword(s):  
Social Desirability ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Hand Washing ◽  
Personal Hygiene ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
Hygiene Practices ◽  
Hygiene Measures ◽  
Prevalence Estimates ◽  
Self Reports ◽  
Crosswise Model

Abstract Background During the COVID-19 pandemic, billions of people have to change their behaviours to slow down the spreading of the virus. Protective measures include self-isolation, social (physical) distancing and compliance with personal hygiene rules, particularly regular and thorough hand washing. Prevalence estimates for the compliance with the COVID-19 measures are often based on direct self-reports. However, during a health crisis there is strong public pressure to comply with health and safety regulations so that people’s responding in direct self-reports may be seriously compromised by social desirability. Methods In an online survey, an indirect questioning technique was used to test whether the prevalence of hygiene practices may be lower than in conventional surveys when confidentiality of responding is guaranteed. The Extended Crosswise Model is an indirect questioning technique that guarantees the confidentiality of responding. To the degree that direct self-reports are biased by social desirability, prevalence estimates of hygiene practices such as thorough hand washing based on the Extended Crosswise Model should be lower than those based on direct self-reports. Results We analysed data of 1434 participants. In the direct questioning group 94.5% of the participants claimed to practice proper hand hygiene; in the indirect questioning group a significantly lower estimate of only 78.1% was observed. Conclusions These results indicate that estimates of the degree of commitment to measures designed to counter the spread of the disease may be significantly inflated by social desirability in direct self-reports. Indirect questioning techniques with higher levels of confidentiality seem helpful in obtaining more realistic estimates of the degree to which people follow the recommended personal hygiene measures. More realistic estimates of compliance can help to inform and to adjust public information campaigns on COVID-19 hygiene recommendations.

Response biases in policy compliance research

2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 445-465
Author(s):  
Sebastian Kurowski
Keyword(s):  
Social Desirability ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Measurement Instrument ◽  
Social Approval ◽  
Current Policy ◽  
Policy Compliance ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Factors Influencing ◽  
Response Biases ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose The purpose of this study is to use a developed and pre-tested scenario-based measurement instrument for policy compliance and determine whether policy compliance measurements in the current policy compliance research are biased as has been postulated during a pre-study. The expected biases are because of social desirability and because of biases based on identity theory. Design/methodology/approach A survey was conducted (n = 54) that used policy compliance scales from literature and the developed self-reporting policy compliance (SRPC) scale, along with the Marlow–Crowne social desirability (MC-SDB) scale. Differences between the policy compliance scales were assessed. Moreover, a transformation of the SRPC measurements into the literature-based scales was examined using pair-wise t-testing. Finally, correlations between the MC-SDB and the policy compliance scales were examined. Findings There are no significant influences on the desire for social approval of the respondents as was exhibited by the MC-SDB values and policy compliance on either scale. However, the SRPC scale measurements show deviations from the literature-based policy compliance scales. Individuals that exhibit secure behaviour, which is not rooted in a policy but rather in anything but the policy, are also captured as being policy compliant in the current scales. This shows that a response bias exists in current scales. Respondents, who perceive to exhibit secure behaviours, may think that they are in compliance with the policy, even when they are not. Practical implications These findings mean that several contributions in the field of policy compliance must be questioned and that a revisit of several factors influencing policy compliance may be required. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, response biases in policy compliance research have not been considered to date.

“Let Me Show You How Nice I Am”: Impression Management as Bias in Empathic Responses

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 752-760 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claudia Sassenrath
Keyword(s):  
Prosocial Behavior ◽  
Impression Management ◽  
Response Bias ◽  
Social Desirability ◽  
Past Research ◽  
Reactivity Index ◽  
Additional Experiment ◽  
Interindividual Differences ◽  
Desirable Response ◽  
Response Biases

Past research showed that empathic responses are confounded with social desirability. The present research aims at illuminating this confound. In a first step, it is examined how a measure typically implemented to screen, for response, biases based on social desirability (i.e., the Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding) relate to classical measures of interindividual differences in empathic responses (i.e., the Interpersonal Reactivity Index). Moreover, it is investigated what happens to empathic responses under conditions of reduced opportunity to behave socially desirable. Results of two correlational studies indicate that impression management (IM) as well as self-deceptive enhancement as facets of a socially desirable response bias is related to self-reported empathic responses. Results of an additional experiment show that introducing conditions reducing opportunity for IM lowers empathic responses toward a person in need. Implications for research on self-reported empathy and empathy-induced prosocial behavior are discussed.

scholarly journals A Bias-Corrected Estimator for the Crosswise Model with Inattentive Respondents

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Yuki Atsusaka ◽  
Randolph T. Stevenson
Keyword(s):  
Sensitivity Analysis ◽  
Open Source ◽  
Open Source Software ◽  
Bias Correction ◽  
Power Analysis ◽  
Simple Design ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Survey Technique ◽  
Sensitive Attribute ◽  
Crosswise Model

Abstract The crosswise model is an increasingly popular survey technique to elicit candid answers from respondents on sensitive questions. Recent studies, however, point out that in the presence of inattentive respondents, the conventional estimator of the prevalence of a sensitive attribute is biased toward 0.5. To remedy this problem, we propose a simple design-based bias correction using an anchor question that has a sensitive item with known prevalence. We demonstrate that we can easily estimate and correct for the bias arising from inattentive respondents without measuring individual-level attentiveness. We also offer several useful extensions of our estimator, including a sensitivity analysis for the conventional estimator, a strategy for weighting, a framework for multivariate regressions in which a latent sensitive trait is used as an outcome or a predictor, and tools for power analysis and parameter selection. Our method can be easily implemented through our open-source software cWise.

scholarly journals A Strong Validation of the Crosswise Model Using Experimentally-Induced Cheating Behavior

2015 ◽  
Vol 62 (6) ◽  
pp. 403-414 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adrian Hoffmann ◽  
Birk Diedenhofen ◽  
Bruno Verschuere ◽  
Jochen Musch
Keyword(s):  
Accurate Estimate ◽  
Personal Attribute ◽  
Sensitive Questions ◽  
Socially Desirable Responding ◽  
Cheating Behavior ◽  
Direct Question ◽  
Online Cheating ◽  
Crosswise Model ◽  
Experimentally Induced ◽  
Target Words

Abstract. We constructed an online cheating paradigm that could be used to validate the Crosswise Model ( Yu, Tian, & Tang, 2008 ), a promising indirect questioning technique designed to control for socially desirable responding on sensitive questions. Participants qualified for a reward only if they could identify the target words from three anagrams, one of which was virtually unsolvable as shown on a pretest. Of the 664 participants, 15.5% overreported their performance and were categorized as cheaters. When participants were asked to report whether they had cheated, a conventional direct question resulted in a substantial underestimate (5.1%) of the known prevalence of cheaters. Using a CWM question resulted in a more accurate estimate (13.0%). This result shows that the CWM can be used to control for socially desirable responding and provides estimates that are much closer to the known prevalence of a sensitive personal attribute than those obtained using a direct question.

Plagiarism in Student Papers: Prevalence Estimates Using Special Techniques for Sensitive Questions

2011 ◽  
Vol 231 (5-6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisabethen Coutts ◽  
Ben Jann ◽  
Ivar Krumpal ◽  
Anatol-Fiete Näher
Keyword(s):  
Potential Problem ◽  
Social Desirability Bias ◽  
Classroom Setting ◽  
Randomized Response ◽  
Web Surveys ◽  
Questioning Techniques ◽  
Prevalence Estimates ◽  
Self Reports ◽  
Crosswise Model ◽  
Sensitive Behavior

SummaryThis article evaluates three different questioning techniques for measuring the prevalence of plagiarism in student papers: the randomized response technique (RRT), the item count technique (ICT), and the crosswise model (CM). In three independent experimental surveys with Swiss and German university students as subjects (two web surveys and a survey using paper and- pencil questionnaires in a classroom setting), each of the three techniques is compared to direct questioning and evaluated based on the “more-is-better” assumption. According to our results the RRT and the ICT failed to reduce social desirability bias in self-reports of plagiarism. In contrast, the CM was more successful in eliciting a significantly higher rate of reported sensitive behavior than direct questioning. One reason for the success of the CM, we believe, is that it overcomes the “self-protective no” bias known from the RRT (and which may also be a potential problem in the ICT).We find rates of up to 22 percent of students who declared that they ever intentionally adopted a passage from someone else’s work without citing it. Severe plagiarism such as handing in someone else’s paper as one’s own, however, seems to be less frequent with rates of about 1 to 2 percent.

scholarly journals Indirect questioning methods for sensitive survey questions: Modelling criminal behaviours among a prison population

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. e0245550
Author(s):  
Beatriz Cobo ◽  
Eva Castillo ◽  
Francisca López-Torrecillas ◽  
María del Mar Rueda
Keyword(s):  
Social Desirability ◽  
Sexual Offenders ◽  
Prison Population ◽  
Policy Formation ◽  
Social Desirability Bias ◽  
Criminal Behaviour ◽  
Obsessive Compulsive ◽  
Questioning Techniques ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Reported Data

Information such as the prevalence and frequency of criminal behaviour is difficult to estimate using standard survey techniques because of the tendency of respondents to withhold or misrepresent information. Social desirability bias is a significant threat to the validity of self-reported data, especially when supplied by persons such as sexual offenders or those convicted of theft or substance abuse. The randomized response approach is an alternative to the standard interview method and offers great potential for researchers in the field of criminal justice. By means of a survey of 792 prison inmates, incorporating both indirect and direct response techniques, we investigate if the prison population also has problems recognizing their participation in criminal acts such as theft, illicit drug use, violence against property, reckless driving and arson. Our research findings suggest that self-reported criminal behaviour among a prison population is affected by social desirability bias and that the behaviour considered is significantly associated with the severity of obsessive-compulsive symptoms. The results also demonstrate the inadequacy of traditional, yet widely used, direct questioning methods, and the great potential for indirect questioning techniques to advance policy formation and evaluation in the field of criminal behaviour.

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