Response bias is a general term for a wide range of tendencies for participants to respond inaccurately or falsely to questions. These biases are prevalent in research involving participant self-report, such as structured interviews or surveys.[1] Response biases can have a large impact on the validity of questionnaires or surveys.[1][2]
Response bias can be induced or caused by numerous factors, all relating to the idea that human subjects do not respond passively to stimuli, but rather actively integrate multiple sources of information to generate a response in a given situation.[3] Because of this, almost any aspect of an experimental condition may potentially bias a respondent. Examples include the phrasing of questions in surveys, the demeanor of the researcher, the way the experiment is conducted, or the desires of the participant to be a good experimental subject and to provide socially desirable responses may affect the response in some way.[1][2][3][4] All of these "artifacts" of survey and self-report research may have the potential to damage the validity of a measure or study.[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.[5]
Because of response bias, it is possible that some study results are due to a systematic response bias rather than the hypothesized effect, which can have a profound effect on psychological and other types of research using questionnaires or surveys.[5] It is therefore important for researchers to be aware of response bias and the effect it can have on their research so that they can attempt to prevent it from impacting their findings in a negative manner.
^ abcFurnham, Adrian (1986). "Response bias, social desirability and dissimulation". Personality and Individual Differences. 7 (3): 385–400. doi:10.1016/0191-8869(86)90014-0.
^ abcNederhof, Anton J. (1985). "Methods of coping with social desirability bias: A review". European Journal of Social Psychology. 15 (3): 263–280. doi:10.1002/ejsp.2420150303.
^ abOrne, Martin T. (1962). "On the social psychology of the psychological experiment: With particular reference to demand characteristics and their implications". American Psychologist. 17 (11): 776–783. doi:10.1037/h0043424. S2CID 7975753.
^Kalton, Graham; Schuman, Howard (1982). "The Effect of the Question on Survey Responses: A Review" (PDF). Journal of the Royal Statistical Society. Series A (General). 145 (1): 42–73. doi:10.2307/2981421. hdl:2027.42/146916. JSTOR 2981421. S2CID 151566559.
^ abGove, W. R.; Geerken, M. R. (1977). "Response bias in surveys of mental health: An empirical investigation". American Journal of Sociology. 82 (6): 1289–1317. doi:10.1086/226466. JSTOR 2777936. PMID 889001. S2CID 40008515.
Responsebias is a general term for a wide range of tendencies for participants to respond inaccurately or falsely to questions. These biases are prevalent...
Participation bias or non-responsebias is a phenomenon in which the results of elections, studies, polls, etc. become non-representative because the...
Cognitive biases are systematic patterns of deviation from norm and/or rationality in judgment. They are often studied in psychology, sociology and behavioral...
Acquiescence bias, also known as agreement bias, is a category of responsebias common to survey research in which respondents have a tendency to select...
due to a non-responsebias. Response rates have been declining, and are down to about 10% in recent years. Because of this selection bias, the characteristics...
sometimes also referred to as responsebias, responder bias or reporting bias. Recall bias is a type of measurement bias, and can be a methodological issue...
80% of people reportedly display normalcy bias during a disaster. The normalcy bias can manifest in response to warnings about disasters and actual catastrophes...
In statistics, sampling bias is a bias in which a sample is collected in such a way that some members of the intended population have a lower or higher...
error. Bias in surveys is undesirable, but often unavoidable. The major types of bias that may occur in the sampling process are: Non-responsebias: When...
the difference between the placebo effect and the effects of responsebias, observer bias and other flaws in trial methodology, as a trial comparing placebo...
Selection bias is the bias introduced by the selection of individuals, groups, or data for analysis in such a way that proper randomization is not achieved...
Gender bias on Wikipedia is a term used to describe various gender-related disparities on Wikipedia, particularly the overrepresentation of men among both...
2014. E.A. Lee (1978), Scholarly articles for "responsebias" "nielsen' A. Furnham (1986), "Responsebias, social desirability and dissimulation", Personality...
commonly, investigators simply decline to submit results, leading to non-responsebias. Investigators may also assume they made a mistake, find that the null...
recorders use AC bias. When recording, magnetic tape has a nonlinear response as determined by its coercivity. Without bias, this response results in poor...
Belief bias is the tendency to judge the strength of arguments based on the plausibility of their conclusion rather than how strongly they justify that...
sensitivity index d' and A', and responsebias can be estimated with statistics like c and β. β is the measure of responsebias. Signal detection theory can...
Bias is a disproportionate weight in favor of or against an idea or thing, usually in a way that is inaccurate, closed-minded, prejudicial, or unfair....
A cognitive bias is a systematic pattern of deviation from norm or rationality in judgment. Individuals create their own "subjective reality" from their...
Confirmation bias (also confirmatory bias, myside bias, or congeniality bias) is the tendency to search for, interpret, favor, and recall information...
Affair in Context" (1997), comparing Sokal's hoax to "Confirmational Response: Bias Among Social Work Journals" (1990), an article by William M. Epstein...
exhibiting authority bias. Respect for authority is measured using the Respect for Authority Index (RAI), which averages responses on deference to the...
sampling variability, interviewer effects, frame errors, responsebias, and non-responsebias. Total Survey Error is discussed in detail in many sources...
content scales contain obvious content and therefore are susceptible to responsebias – exaggeration or denial of symptoms, and should be interpreted with...
questions asks for ratings of multiple objects on the same response scale acquiescence responsebias, which is the tendency to agree with any assertion, regardless...
outlined several problems with the Berkeley studies, including responsebias. Responsebias results from the F-scale being uniformly worded in a confirming...