Controlling social desirability bias: An experimental investigation of the extended crosswise model - PubMed (original) (raw)

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

Julia Meisters et al. PLoS One. 2020.

Abstract

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.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1

Fig 1. Tree diagrams for direct questioning and the Extended Crosswise Model (ECWM).

The parameter π represents the unknown prevalence of the sensitive attribute and the parameter p1 and p2 represent the known randomization probabilities. In the current study, randomization probabilities as obtained from official birth statistics provided by the German Federal Statistical Office [34] were p1 = .158, and p2 = .842, respectively.

References

    1. Paulhus DL. Measurement and Control of Response Bias In: Robinson JP, Shaver PR, Wrightsman LS, editors. Measures of personality and social psychological attitudes, Vol 1 San Diego, CA: Academic Press; 1991. p. 17–59.
    1. Tourangeau R, Yan T. Sensitive questions in surveys. Psychol Bull. 2007;133:859–83. 10.1037/0033-2909.133.5.859 PubMed PMID: 2007-12463-007. -DOI -PubMed
    1. Warner SL. Randomized-Response—a Survey Technique for Eliminating Evasive Answer Bias. J Am Stat Assoc. 1965;60:63–9. PubMed PMID: ISI:A1965CKX1300005. -PubMed
    1. Lensvelt-Mulders GJLM, Hox JJ, van der Heijden PGM, Maas CJM. Meta-analysis of randomized response research: thirty-five years of validation. Sociol Method Res. 2005;33:319–48. 10.1177/0049124104268664 PubMed PMID: ISI:000226871800001. -DOI
    1. Brewer KRW. Estimating Marihuana Usage Using Randomized Response-Some Paradoxieal Findings. Australian Journal of Statistics. 1981;23:139–48.

Publication types

MeSH terms

LinkOut - more resources