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Motivation to Report Sensitive Behaviors on Surveys: Evidence From a Bogus Pipeline Experiment 1
Author(s) -
Tourangeau Roger,
Smith Tom W.,
Rasinski Kenneth A.
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
journal of applied social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.822
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1559-1816
pISSN - 0021-9029
DOI - 10.1111/j.1559-1816.1997.tb00629.x
Subject(s) - psychology , pipeline (software) , social psychology , applied psychology , computer science , programming language
We examined the effects of a procedure designed to increase motivation to give accurate reports of socially sensitive behaviors frequently collected in surveys. 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 that respondents were motivated to respond accurately and not just to report more occurrences.