Hi ,
Have you ever lied in response to a question about a topic that was sensitive or embarrassing to you?
Are you telling the truth right now?
The fact is, when asked about sensitive, controversial or socially undesirable points of view, people have a natural tendency to lie. This means that any survey data collected about the topic will be biased, leading to discrepancies between survey results and the truth.
But if you're a data
scientist looking to analyse sensitive beliefs, what are you to do?
Stop being so direct.
Here's how...
Suppose you were interested in understanding attitudes around a particular controversial topic.
Asking people directly won't work. However, if you give people a list of statements containing one statement about the controversial topic plus several non-controversial statements, and ask them how many they agree with, there is a much greater chance you will find the
truth.
This is the idea behind list questions, which are the "secret sauce" when designing surveys around sensitive beliefs.
I recently had the opportunity to discuss list questions and the art of survey design with Kyle Block.
You can listen to our conversation at the link below: Episode 38: The Art and Science of Survey Design
Talk again
soon,
Dr Genevieve Hayes.
