She Said, He Said, They Said

Abstract

Since concerns about privacy are paramount for most survey organizations, it is standard practice to instruct interviewers to question respondents alone, especially on sensitive attitudes and behaviors. Despite these guidelines, third parties-specially spouses and children-frequently are present in interviews. Although most research has found little impact of third parties, we contend that conceptual and methodological weaknesses may be masking these effects. Using interviews from both husbands and wives in the British Household Panel Study, we have several key findings. First, spousal presence during an interview leads to greater agreement between husbands and wives on a variety of attitudinal and behavioral items: class identification, party affiliation, economic liberalism, postmaterialism, and the division of household labor. Second, the presence of a spouse does not make one more likely to report a particular ideological (e.g., the government should guarantee jobs to everyone who needs them) or socially desirable position (e.g., women do less ironing). Finally, the source of this increased agreement is different for men and women