Abstract

The relation between answer behaviour and measurement error has been studied extensively. Answer behaviour may be considered undesirable, like answering ‘don’t know’ or ‘won’t tell’. It is not clear to what degree undesirable answer behaviour from the same respondents is present across different surveys. In this study, we investigated to what extent respondents show undesirable answer behaviours consistently over multiple surveys. First, we investigated to what extent the answer behaviours occurred in ten large general population surveys of CentERdata and Statistics Netherlands. Second, we explored the respondent variances and respondent-survey interaction variances to obtain an indication for respondent consistency for each answer behaviour. The results showed that respondents only occasionally give ‘don’t know’– and ‘won’t tell’-answers. An indication for respondent consistency was found for fast responding, slow responding, and ‘won’t tell’-answers in particular. We recommend follow-up research to investigate the relation between respondent characteristics and consistent answer behaviour.

Highlights

  • The relation between survey answer behaviour and measurement error has been studied extensively

  • We investigate to what extent respondents show consistency in expressing potentially undesirable answer behaviour across multiple surveys

  • Before answering our research questions, we address the potential influence of the administration period during which respondents filled out the surveys on the results

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Summary

Introduction

The relation between survey answer behaviour and measurement error has been studied extensively. The extent to which undesirable answer behaviour of the same respondents is present across different surveys is unclear. When a respondent only incidentally shows a behaviour, for example for one specific survey, it is not to say whether that behaviour is typical for that. When a respondent shows the behaviour across different and multiple surveys, it becomes more likely that the behaviour is typical for that specific respondent. The respondent may have a stable personal tendency to show specific undesirable behaviour, regardless of survey topic or design. We investigate to what extent respondents show consistency in expressing potentially undesirable answer behaviour across multiple surveys. To answer our research question, we use a large number of panel respondents and a large number of different surveys

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