Inconsistent Respondents and Sensitive Questions

Abstract

This article focuses on respondents as the source of measurement error, regardless of the question being asked, interviewer effects, or other factors that influence survey quality. Some individuals simply provide poorer answers as a result of a behavior called satisficing. An especially troublesome case is that of sensitive questions, where misreporting is common. In the study reported here, a significant role was found for individual-level time consistency as a predictor for answers to sensitive questions related to children, sex, condoms, and HIV. Couples’ reports, where couple-level fixed effects (including the “true” answer) can be ruled out, confirm this result. Satisficing may have more of an impact on how individuals respond to sensitive questions than previously thought.