Respondent-specific information from the randomized response interview: Compliance assessment

Abstract

In situations in which researchers ask potentially embarrassing questions, respondents may feel uncomfortable with revealing certain behavior. Consequently, response rates or accuracy may be low. The “randomized response interview” (RRI) was developed to enable researchers to better elicit responses to such questions. The technique has clear potential in estimating population proportions engaging in embarrassing behavior. It does not appear to have been recognized that one may also obtain more respondent-specific information from the application of the RRI. This article indicates that while still only probabilistic, respondent-specific information is obtainable from the RRI.