SURVEY RESEARCHacceptable answer as described in this chapter’s
opening box. However,social desirability biasis
widespread. It occurswhen respondents distort
answers to conform to popular social norms.
People tend to overstate being highly cultured (e.g.,
reading, attending cultural events), giving money
to charity, having a good marriage, loving their
children, and so forth. One study found that 34
percent of people who reported in a survey that they
gave money to a local charity really did not.^23
Because a norm says that one should vote in
elections, many report voting when they did not. In
the United States, those under the greatest pressure
to vote (i.e., highly educated, politically partisan,
highly religious people who had been contacted by
an organization that urged them to vote) are the
people most likely to overreport voting. This pat-
terned misrepresentation of voting “substantially
distorts” studies of voting that rely on self-reported
survey data (Bernstein et al., 2001:41).
One way to reduce social desirability bias is to
phrase questions in ways that make norm violation
appear less objectionable or give respondents
“face-saving” alternatives. For example, Belli et al.
(1999) reduced overreporting of voting and per-
mitted respondents to “save face” by including in
their voting question statements such as “A lot of
people were not able to vote because they were not
registered, were sick, or just didn’t have time.”
They offered four response choices: “I did not vote
in the November 5 election; I thought about voting
but did not vote; I usually vote but did not vote this
time; I am sure I voted on November 5.” Only the
last response choice is a clear, unambiguous
indication that the person voted. Phrased in this
manner, more people admitted that they did not
vote.Knowledge Questions.Studies suggest that a
large majority of the public cannot correctly answer
elementary geography questions, name their elected
leaders, or identify major documents (e.g., the
Declaration of Independence). If we use knowledge
questions to learn what respondents know, we need
to be careful because respondents may lie because
they do not want to appear ignorant.^24 Knowledge
questions are important because they address the
basis on which people make judgments and form
opinions. They tell us whether people are forming
opinions based on inaccurate information.
Nadeau and colleagues (1993) found that most
Americans seriously overestimate the percent of
racial minorities in the population. Only 15 percent
(plus or minus 6 percent) of U.S. adults accurately
report that 12.1 percent of the U.S. population is
African American. More than half believe it is above
30 percent. Similarly, Jews make up about 3 percent
of the U.S. population, but a majority (60 percent)
of Americans believe the proportion to be 10 per-
cent. A follow-up study by Sigelman and Niemi
(2001:93) found that “African Americans them-
selves overestimate the black population by at least
as much” as other respondents. Nearly twice as
many African Americans (about 30 percent) versus
15 percent of Whites thought that African Ameri-
cans were one-half of the U.S. population. Appar-
ently, many Americans have a distorted view of the
true racial composition of their country.
Race is not the only issue of which the public
has a distorted picture. For example, when we ask
Americans about government spending for foreign
aid, a large percentage will say that it is too high.
However, if we ask them how much the government
should be spending on foreign aid, people report an
amount that is actually more than the government
is currently spending. This situation creates a
dilemma. If we ask about the issue in one way, we
find that the public says the spending is too high,
but if we ask in a different way, we find the public
says (indirectly) that it is lower than it should be.
Such a dilemma is not unique to the foreign
aid issue. In many issue areas—university expenses,
health care programs, aid to poor people—
respondents offer an opinion to support or oppose
an issue or policy position, but if we ask them about
the issue in a different way, their position reverses.
This dilemma does not mean that we cannot
obtain valid measures of public opinions with sur-
veys. It reminds us that social life is complex andSocial desirabilty bias A problem in survey research
in which respondents give a “normative” response or a
socially acceptable answer rather than an honest answer.