ASKING SENSITIVE QUESTIONS - THE EFFECTS OF TYPE OF REFERENT AND FREQUENCY WORDING IN COUNTERBIASING METHODS

Respondents typically underreport socially undesirable behaviors and o verreport socially desirable behaviors because of a social desirabilit y bias. This not only leads to biased data, but also has important imp lications for health-care marketers interested in encouraging people t o perform in more socially desirable ways. This article investigates t he effects of providing counterbiasing information on reducing this so cial desirability bias. Study 1 investigates whether information that a socially desirable behavior is performed less frequently than expect ed reduces the extent of overreporting. In Study 2, alternative method s of presenting information about the target behavior are studied. The data demonstrate that counterbiasing information is more effective wh en the referent is a population base rate versus an individual, and is moderated by the wording of the frequency, such that the counterbiasi ng information is more effective when the frequency is worded as an ac tual number versus a percent. Implications for questionnaire design an d health-care marketing are discussed. (C) 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc .