Adjusting self-reported attitudinal data for mischievous respondents

For various reasons, survey participants may submit phoney attitudinal self-reports meant to bypass researcher scepticism.

Adjusting self-reported attitudinal data for mischievous respondents

Michael R. Hyman

New Mexico State University

Jeremy J. Sierra

Texas State University–San Marcos

Self-report biases threaten the reliability of attitudinal data. For example, social desirability bias, triggered by self-deception enhancement and/or impression management, can cause misreports or non-responses to sensitive questions and uninformed answers to knowledge-based questions (Goldsmith 1989; Fisher 2000; King & Bruner 2000; Paulhus et al. 2003). Other problematic response-style biases, such as acquiescence, courtesy, extreme response, personality-trait and cultural (Heide & Grønhaug 1982; Bachman & O’Malley 1984; Greenleaf 1992a, 1992b; Mathews & Diamantopoulos 1995; Yates et...

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