MOTIVATION TO REPORT SENSITIVE BEHAVIORS ON SURVEYS - EVIDENCE FROM ABOGUS PIPELINE EXPERIMENT

We examined the effects of a procedure designed to increase motivation to give accurate reports of socially sensitive behaviors frequently c ollected in surveys. Respondents were assigned at random to a bogus pi peline condition, in which they were told that inaccurate answers coul d be detected by a physiological recording device, or to a control con dition. Respondents in both conditions were interviewed with a questio nnaire that contained 19 items ranging from smoking and exercise frequ ency to number of sexual partners and illicit drug use. While the bogu s pipeline procedure generally increased the reporting of sensitive be havior, in one instance it reduced the proportion of respondents who r eported a socially desirable behavior (exercising), indicating that re spondents were motivated to respond accurately and not just to report more occurrences.