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Social desirability bias and the validity of indirect questioning

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Robert J Fisher at University of Alberta
Robert J Fisher
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Social desirability bias and the validity of indirect questioning
Fisher, Robert J
Journal of Consumer Research; Sep 1993; 20, 2; ABI/INFORM Global
pg. 303
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
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Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
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... In addition to the studying behaviors, some experimental evidences indicate that students with healthy lifestyles and good sleep habits have higher GPAs in average [25,26,27,28]. Under the traditional research framework, a large portion of data sets come from questionnaires and self-reports, which are usually of very small sizes (most sample sizes scale from dozens to hundreds, see meta-analysis reviews [15,16,21,22,26]) and suffer from social desirability bias [29,30], resulting in the difficulties to draw valid and solid conclusions. ...
... The majority of known studies in this domain are based on questionnaires with sample sizes usually scaling from dozens to hundreds [15,16,21,22,26]. In addition, these studies suffer from experimental bias since subjects would like to report social desirable information while not to report disapproved behaviors [29,30]. Therefore, analyzing large-scale unobtrusive digital records will become a promising or even mainstream methodology in the near future. ...
Orderness Predicts Academic Performance: Behavioral Analysis on Campus Lifestyle
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  • Apr 2017
Quantitative understanding of relationships between students' behavioral patterns and academic performances is a significant step towards personalized education. In contrast to previous studies that mainly based on questionnaire surveys, in this paper, we collect behavioral records from 18,960 undergraduate students' smart cards and propose a novel metric, called orderness, which measures the regularity of campus daily life (e.g., meals and showers) of each student. Empirical analysis demonstrates that academic performance (GPA) is strongly correlated with orderness. Furthermore, we show that orderness is an important feature to predict academic performance, which remarkably improves the prediction accuracy even at the presence of students' diligence. Based on these analyses, education administrators could better guide students' campus lives and implement effective interventions in an early stage when necessary.
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... The Opinion section asked participants to rate their agreement with privacy statements (for example, "privacy is of importance to me") on a five-point Likert scale from "Strongly Agree" to "Strongly Disagree". We requested these opinions before individuals reported their actions, as a means of reducing priming effects and social desirability bias [14]. The final opinion asked participants to self-evaluate their own level of privacy, and this was compared with their reported actions and disclosure behaviour. ...
Optional Data Disclosure and the Online Privacy Paradox: A UK Perspective
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  • Jul 2018
Opinion polls suggest that the public value their privacy, with majorities calling for greater control of their data. However, individuals continue to use online services which place their personal information at risk, comprising a Privacy Paradox. Previous work has analysed this phenomenon through after-the-fact comparisons, but not studied disclosure behaviour during questioning. We physically surveyed UK cities to study how the British public regard privacy and how perceptions differ between demographic groups. Through analysis of optional data disclosure, we empirically examined whether those who claim to value their privacy act privately with their own data. We found that both opinions and self-reported actions have little effect on disclosure, with over 99\% of individuals revealing private data needlessly. We show that not only do individuals act contrary to their opinions, they disclose information needlessly even whilst describing themselves as private. We believe our findings encourage further analysis of data disclosure, as a means of studying genuine privacy behaviour.
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... See Table 2 for demographic information of the participants in our study. • Ensure anonymity to participants prior to entering the study (Fisher, 1993) • Manipulation check questions are presented after the measurement of dependent variables (Lonati et al., 2018) • The between-subject experimental design can disguise the purpose of the study by randomly assigning participant to one of the multiple scenarios (Duan et al., 2020). • Online recruitment and data collection allow us to minimize direct interactions between the experimenters and participants, reducing the possibility of demand effects (Ranehill et al., 2015) Character Misrepresentation ...
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... The researchers presented here the percentage of responses of the strongly agreeing and the total percentage of favorable responses. However, a fair amount of information is lost when neglecting the responses that are unfavorable or neutral (Fisher, 1993). Therefore, the researcher also treats the degree as if they were cardinal numbers so that the researchers can obtain mean scores as summary measures of the responses. ...
Sustainability Literacy: Assessment of knowingness, attitude and behavior regarding sustainable development among students in China
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  • Oct 2024
Education is critical to achieving the world’s sustainable development (SD). Assessment or measurement is a means to help an education system to accelerate integrating SD content. To have a perception of the gap in relation to the SD action goals, a basic understanding of current students’ knowledge, attitudes and behaviors (KAB) needs to be established. The study applied a survey to assess Chinses students’ knowingness, attitude and behavior regarding SD. Data were collected from students from all parts of China via an online survey tool, which consists of 887 primary-school students and 1661 secondary-school students. The results indicate a high level of KAB regarding SD among Chinese students, while this sustainability literacy is mainly embodied in the environmental dimension. In general, the results showed the better KAB of primary-school students than secondary-school students, while there was almost no difference between male and female students. Moreover, knowingness and attitude have significant and positive correlations with behaviors. These results constitute a general sketch of Chinese students’ sustainable knowledge, attitudes and behavior, which could be employed to monitor China’s efforts on education for sustainable development and also to foster curriculum developments and innovations in China.
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... One significant issue is the possibility that respondents may not answer the questionnaire honestly. This can be due to various reasons, including social desirability bias, where respondents provide answers they believe are socially acceptable rather than their true thoughts or behaviors (Fisher, 1993). In Malaysian society, respondents may provide answers they believe are socially acceptable rather than their true opinions, leading to skewed data and affecting the validity of research findings (van de Mortel, 2008). ...
Factors Influencing the usage of Online Travel Agency (OTA) Mobile Apps in Malaysia
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Mobile apps have revolutionised the way people travel, especially via Online Travel Agency (OTA) platforms, in today's rapidly evolving digital era. These apps, including popular ones like Booking.com, Agoda, and Traveloka, became essential tools for travelers, offering services from flight bookings to hotel reservations with just a few taps. In Malaysia, a country known for its rich cultural diversity and vibrant tourism industry, OTA mobile apps saw widespread adoption. However, the factors that influenced their usage among Malaysian travelers were complex and multifaceted. This study investigated the various elements that shaped the use of OTA mobile apps in Malaysia, aiming to uncover the key drivers and barriers that affected user behavior. By exploring the technological, cultural, economic, and social factors at play, this research provided valuable insights into how these apps were perceived and utilized by different segments of the population. Using a quantitative approach, data were collected from 216 respondents through an online questionnaire. The analysis highlighted several critical factors, including user preferences, information accuracy, interface design, and connectivity issues, which all played a role in shaping the overall user experience. Additionally, cultural considerations significantly influenced expectations and satisfaction levels. The findings of this study offered practical recommendations for OTA providers, suggesting ways to enhance app functionality and tailor marketing strategies to better meet the needs of Malaysian travelers. By addressing the identified challenges and leveraging the insights gained, industry stakeholders could optimize their services to foster greater user satisfaction and loyalty, ultimately this will lead to a surge of the sustainability and development of the tourism sector in Malaysia. 2
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... Researchers have tried to gain insight into consumer intention and behavior based on self-reported measures, but social expectations may lead participants to give answers that are more consistent with their internal thoughts than their actual behavior (Fisher, 1993). ...
Consumers' responses to personalized service from medical artificial intelligence and human doctors
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Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming healthcare, yet little is known about how consumers experience medical AI and make decisions about using these providers for follow‐up care. We take an interdisciplinary approach that combines behavioral and neuroimaging experiments to determine how anthropomorphism and personalization influence consumers' well‐being and their decisions about a provider for follow‐up care. Study 1 finds that, regardless of the type of medical provider used, consumers are likely to experience a heightened sense of well‐being after a highly personalized medical consultation. However, regardless of whether the first interaction is highly personalized or not, they prefer follow‐up visits with a human doctor, as mediated through empathy. Study 2 finds that, regardless of the type of medical provider used, the anterior cingulate cortex shows greater activation in a highly (vs. low) personalized interaction, the activation of which is also correlated with consumers' willingness to revisit that provider. Furthermore, the temporal occipital fusiform cortex shows greater activation in consultations with a human doctor (vs. medical AI), regardless of the interaction's level of personalization. The level of activation is also correlated with consumers' willingness to revisit with the initial provider. The findings suggest that medical AI cannot currently replace human doctors and that human doctors remain consumers' choice for medical consultations and treatment.
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... The "early adopter" variable's positive significance suggests that farmers willing to be the first or early adopters of precision farming technologies and services have a higher probability of adopting the technology. This could be the result of social desirability bias, which is the tendency of survey respondents to answer questions in a way that they perceive will be viewed favourably, even if it is not true (Thompson et al, 2019;Fisher, 1993;and Widmar et al, 2016). ...
FARMERS' PERCEPTIONS OF PRECISION AGRICULTURE TECHNOLOGY BENEFIT AND ITS IMPACT ON TECHNOLOGY ADOPTION USING PROBIT MODELS IN LAGOS STATE
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  • Oct 2024
Precision agriculture (PA) technologies can potentially reduce losses and waste of inputs and improve crop yield. This study aims to evaluate farmers' perceptions of the benefits of precision agriculture technologies, and their impact on technology adoption using probit models in Lagos State. 120 participants including poultry farmers were purposely selected for the study in Ikorodu and Epe Local Government Areas. The data were collected with the use of structured interviews and questionnaires on the socio-demographic characteristics of the participants and the perception of PA benefits. Percentages, mean and standard deviation were used to summarise the socio- demographic and perception of PA benefit. The probit model was used to analyse the explanatory factors in predicting the probability of the adoption of the model. 87% of participants indicated they agreed that PA technology and services would make farm managers more efficient. The majority of adopters (85%) as against (15%) of non-adopters, out of 100 agreed that PA technologies and services are an important contributor to their farm's current financial profitability. three socio-demographics, namely, literacy (P≤0.05), gender (P<0.01) and farm size (P≤0.05); and six PA benefit perception variables- Early Adopter (P≥0.005), supervisor (P≤0.05), Ease P≤0.01), financial profitability(P≤0.05), cost-saving(P≤0.05) and yield improvement(P≤0.05) are significant and positively associated with a higher probability of adopting PA technology and service. It was concluded that farmers’ perceptions of the benefits of PA technology vary, and this perception goes a long way in determining whether or not they will adopt PA technology and services.
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... To deal with this bias, the question asked should be indirect, so that they do not have the pressure of social acceptance while answering (see e.g. Fisher, 1993). • Anchoring bias: Regarding this bias, the respondent's answer is influenced by a reference point. ...
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... With in-person surveying, social desirability responses are always a potential limitation to findings. 9 It is also possible that some questions were not well understood by all households. Additionally, households that declined to participate may differ from those that did; for example, households who believe in the severity of COVID-19 may be more likely to participate than those that do not. ...
COVID-19 Prevention Practices and Vaccine Acceptability Among Hispanic and Non-Hispanic Households in an Agricultural Community—Washington, 2020
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  • Nov 2024
Objective To investigate COVID-19 disparities between Hispanic/Latino persons (H/L) and non-H/L persons in an agricultural community by examining behavioral and demographic differences. Methods In September 2020, we conducted Community Assessments for Public Health Emergency Response in Wenatchee and East Wenatchee, Washington, to evaluate differences between H/L and non-H/L populations in COVID-19 risk beliefs, prevention practices, household needs, and vaccine acceptability. We produced weighted sample frequencies. Results More households from predominately H/L census blocks (H/L-CBHs) versus households from predominately non-H/L census blocks (non-H/L-CBHs) worked in essential services (79% versus 57%), could not telework (70% versus 46%), and reported more COVID-19 cases (19% versus 4%). More H/L-CBHs versus non-H/L-CBHs practiced prevention strategies: avoiding gatherings (81% versus 61%), avoiding visiting friends/family (73% versus 36%), and less restaurant dining (indoor 24% versus 39%). More H/L-CBHs versus non-H/L-CBHs needed housing (16% versus 4%) and food assistance (19% versus 6%). COVID-19 vaccine acceptance in H/L-CBHs and non-H/L-CBHs was 42% versus 46%, respectively. Conclusions Despite practicing prevention measures with greater frequency, H/L-CBHs had more COVID-19 cases. H/L-CBHs worked in conditions with a higher likelihood of exposure. H/L-CBHs had increased housing and food assistance needs due to the pandemic. COVID-19 vaccine acceptability was similarly low (<50%) between groups.
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Leveling the Playing Field… in Private: The Interplay of Malicious Envy and Anonymity in Online Revenge
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  • Dec 2024
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This paper explores the dynamics between malicious envy, anonymity, and consumer revenge behaviors, specifically under conditions of perceived unfairness related to access to desirable products or services. Utilizing a theoretical framework based on impression management, we conducted three experimental studies to examine how individuals balance their retributive desires with the need to maintain social approval, particularly focusing on the settings—public versus anonymous—where these behaviors manifest. Our findings reveal how malicious envy acts as a mediator between perceived injustices and revenge behaviors. Moreover, the current research highlights that anonymity, or the lack thereof, significantly influences the likelihood of retaliatory actions, with more punitive actions occurring under conditions that protect consumers' self‐presentation. These insights contribute to our understanding of malicious envy and impression management in consumption settings by illustrating how the public or anonymous nature of actions can modulate the interplay between malicious envy and the desire for revenge. For marketing practitioners, the findings suggest that strategies involving consumer engagement, particularly those that could evoke envy, should carefully consider the potential for negative anonymous feedback.
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