Based on two individual validation studies employing face-to-face interviews and a mail survey, this article investigates factors influencing the probability that respondents truthfully admit to having been convicted of a criminal offense. Overall, 63 percent of the 495 respondents stuck to the truth in the survey settings. The mail survey elicited significantly more truthful responses (67 percent) than the face-to-face survey (58 percent). Female, older, and better-educated respondents confessed their delinquent behavior less often than male, younger, and less-educated ones. Whereas the need for social approval did not show a significant effect on the probability of an honest answer when controlling for other variables, trait desirability did. Regarding the face-to-face survey, the more interviews an interviewer had successfully completed in the ongoing study, the higher the response quality of the interviewees. In the mail mode, a strong negative effect of time to response could be observed: the longer respondents waited before they sent back the questionnaire, the lower the validity of their answers.
%0 Journal Article
%1 preisendrfer2014telling
%A Preisendörfer, Peter
%A Wolter, Felix
%D 2014
%J Public Opinion Quarterly
%K socdes
%N 1
%P 126-146
%R 10.1093/poq/nft079
%T Who Is Telling the Truth? A Validation Study on Determinants of Response Behavior in Surveys
%U http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/poq/nft079
%V 78
%X Based on two individual validation studies employing face-to-face interviews and a mail survey, this article investigates factors influencing the probability that respondents truthfully admit to having been convicted of a criminal offense. Overall, 63 percent of the 495 respondents stuck to the truth in the survey settings. The mail survey elicited significantly more truthful responses (67 percent) than the face-to-face survey (58 percent). Female, older, and better-educated respondents confessed their delinquent behavior less often than male, younger, and less-educated ones. Whereas the need for social approval did not show a significant effect on the probability of an honest answer when controlling for other variables, trait desirability did. Regarding the face-to-face survey, the more interviews an interviewer had successfully completed in the ongoing study, the higher the response quality of the interviewees. In the mail mode, a strong negative effect of time to response could be observed: the longer respondents waited before they sent back the questionnaire, the lower the validity of their answers.
@article{preisendrfer2014telling,
abstract = {Based on two individual validation studies employing face-to-face interviews and a mail survey, this article investigates factors influencing the probability that respondents truthfully admit to having been convicted of a criminal offense. Overall, 63 percent of the 495 respondents stuck to the truth in the survey settings. The mail survey elicited significantly more truthful responses (67 percent) than the face-to-face survey (58 percent). Female, older, and better-educated respondents confessed their delinquent behavior less often than male, younger, and less-educated ones. Whereas the need for social approval did not show a significant effect on the probability of an honest answer when controlling for other variables, trait desirability did. Regarding the face-to-face survey, the more interviews an interviewer had successfully completed in the ongoing study, the higher the response quality of the interviewees. In the mail mode, a strong negative effect of time to response could be observed: the longer respondents waited before they sent back the questionnaire, the lower the validity of their answers.},
added-at = {2017-11-27T16:45:17.000+0100},
author = {Preisendörfer, Peter and Wolter, Felix},
biburl = {https://www.bibsonomy.org/bibtex/20a53acc19e79a5fc574a8cbea9ab0303/dirtyhawk},
doi = {10.1093/poq/nft079},
interhash = {ce3e9756133c0389b66d9d0ba6a72980},
intrahash = {0a53acc19e79a5fc574a8cbea9ab0303},
journal = {Public Opinion Quarterly},
keywords = {socdes},
number = 1,
pages = {126-146},
timestamp = {2018-11-01T01:05:07.000+0100},
title = {Who Is Telling the Truth? {A} Validation Study on Determinants of Response Behavior in Surveys},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/poq/nft079},
urldate = {2017-11-27},
volume = 78,
year = 2014
}