The time it takes to reveal embarrassing information in a mobile phone survey

2021
To explore socially desirable responding in telephone surveys, this study examines response latencies in answers to 27 questions in a corpus of 319 audio-recorded voice interviews on iPhones. Response latencies were compared when respondents (a) answered questions on sensitive vs. nonsensitive topics (as classified by online raters); (b) produced more vs. less socially desirable answers; and (c) were interviewed by a professional interviewer or an automated system. Respondents answered questions on sensitive topics more quickly than on nonsensitive topics, though patterns varied by question format (categorical, numerical, ordinal). Independent of question sensitivity, respondents gave less socially desirable answers more quickly when answering categorical and ordinal questions but more slowly when answering numeric questions. Respondents were particularly quicker to answer sensitive questions when asked by interviewers than by the automated system. Findings demonstrate that response times can be (differently) revealing about question and response sensitivity in a telephone survey.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SOCIAL RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
页码:249-264|卷号:24|期号:2
ISSN:1364-5579
收录类型
SSCI
发表日期
2021
学科领域
循证社会科学-综合
国家
美国
语种
英语
DOI
10.1080/13645579.2020.1824629
其他关键词
SOCIAL DESIRABILITY BIAS; DATA-COLLECTION MODE; SELF-REPORTS; QUESTION; RESPONDENTS; STRATEGIES
EISSN
1464-5300
资助机构
National Science FoundationNational Science Foundation (NSF) [SES-1026225, SES-1025645]; NICHD Center Grant [P2CHD041028]; New School for Social Research
资助信息
The authors gratefully acknowledge National Science Foundation grants to authors Schober and Conrad that funded collection of the data set on which these analyses focus (SES-1026225 and SES-1025645); use of the services and facilities of the Population Studies Center at the University of Michigan, funded by NICHD Center Grant P2CHD041028; New School for Social Research faculty research funds to author Schober; and advice from William Hirst, Ai Rene Ong, Paul Schulz, Brady West, and the editors and reviewers.
被引频次(WOS)
0
被引更新日期
2022-01
来源机构
The New School University of Michigan System University of Michigan
关键词
Sensitive questions sensitive responses social desirability telephone survey self-administered response time IVR interviews