The Impact of Confidentiality Assurances on Participants’ Responses to Sensitive Questions

Abstract

Privacy, anonymity, and confidentiality are issues often addressed when collecting sensitive information (Tourangeau, 2017). Despite the importance of the concept, there is no consensus on what constitutes a sensitive question (Tourangeau, Rips, & Rasinski, 2000). According to Tourangeau and Yan (2007), a question is considered sensitive when it asks for a socially undesirable answer, requesting that the respondent admits that he or she has violated a social or legal norm. Due to the potential consequences of admitting some socially undesirable beliefs, behaviors, or activities (e.g., social or legal sanctioning), sensitive questions are often associated with systematic measurement error (Groves et al., 2004). For instance, research has shown that sensitive questions have comparatively higher item nonresponse rates than nonsensitive questions, and they are regarded as one of the major causes for socially desirable answers in surveys (Diekmann, 2003; Krumpal, 2013; Näher & Krumpal, 2012; Tourangeau et al., 2000).