Response bias
Response bias is a general term for a wide range of tendencies for participants to respond inaccurately or falsely to questions.
[2] Compounding this issue is that surveys affected by response bias still often have high reliability, which can lure researchers into a false sense of security about the conclusions they draw.
Awareness of response bias has been present in psychology and sociology literature for some time because self-reporting features significantly in those fields of research.
[5] They subscribe to the idea that the effects of this bias wash out with large enough samples, and that it is not a systematic problem in mental health research.
[7] Two other studies found that although the bias may be present, the effects are extremely small, having little to no impact towards dramatically changing or altering the responses of participants.
[1][2] They argue that the impact of response bias is a systematic error inherent to this type of research and that it needs to be addressed in order for studies to be able to produce accurate results.
[2][11] Additionally, there is support for the idea that simply being part of an experiment can have dramatic effects on how participants act, thus biasing anything that they may do in a research or experimental setting when it comes to self-reporting.
[14][15] This bias in responding may represent a form of dishonest reporting because the participant automatically endorses any statements, even if the result is contradictory responses.
[16] A second cause for this type of bias was proposed by Lee Cronbach, when he argued that it is likely due to a problem in the cognitive processes of the participant, instead of the motivation to please the researcher.
In a study on disrespect and abuse during facility based childbirth, courtesy bias was found to be one of the causes of potential underreporting of those behaviors at hospitals and clinics.
[20] Evidence has been found that some cultures are especially prone to the courtesy bias, leading respondents to say what they believe the questioner wants to hear.
An emphasis is needed that both positive and negative experiences must be important to showcase to enhance learning and minimize the bias as much as possible.
[3] This arises because participants are actively engaged in the experiment, and may try to figure out the purpose, or adopt certain behaviors they believe belong in an experimental setting.
[12] Many of the ways therapists go about collecting client feedback involve self-reporting measures, which can be highly influenced by response bias.
[12] Participants may be biased if they fill out these measure in front of their therapist, or somehow feel compelled to answer in an affirmative matter because they believe their therapy should be working.
[3] While demand characteristics cannot be completely removed from an experiment, there are steps that researchers can take to minimize the impact they may have on the results.
[26] For example, studies show that extensive one-on-one contact between the experimenter and the participant makes it more difficult to be neutral, and go on to suggest that this type of interaction should be limited when designing an experiment.
Although not perfect, these methods can significantly reduce the effect of demand characteristics on a study, thus making the conclusions drawn from the experiment more likely to accurately reflect what they were intended to measure.
[17] Research has indicated that those with lower intelligence, measured by an analysis of IQ and school achievement, are more likely to be affected by extremity response.
One way is when a question creates a "norm of reciprocity or fairness" as identified in the 1950 work of Herbert Hyman and Paul Sheatsley.
One was asked on whether the United States should allow reporters from communist countries to come to the U.S. and send back news as they saw it; and another question was asked on whether a communist country like Russia should let American newspaper reporters come in and send back news as they saw it to America.
[1] A critical aspect of how this bias can come to affect the responses of participants relates to the norms of the society in which the research is taking place.
[2] For example, social desirability bias could play a large role if conducting research about an individual's tendency to use drugs.
[1] The distortions created by respondents answering in a socially desirable manner can have profound effects on the validity of self-report research.
[2] Without being able to control for or deal with this bias, researchers are unable to determine if the effects they are measuring are due to individual differences, or from a desire to conform to the societal norms present in the population they are studying.
In 1985, Anton Nederhof compiled a list of techniques and methodological strategies for researchers to use to mitigate the effects of social desirability bias in their studies.
[2] Most of these strategies involve deceiving the subject, or are related to the way questions in surveys and questionnaires are presented to those in a study.
