Invalid Response and Institutional Trust

• In Event: 43.071 - Survey Research: Analyzing Items

Abstract

Persons who give false or misleading answers on surveys are known as invalid responders. Reticent response is a type of invalid response in which participants give misleading answers out of a concern for privacy or because questions make them uncomfortable. During cognitive interviews with high school and undergraduate students we identified an association between reticent responding on surveys and distrust of institutions, and then tested our findings quantitatively in a national survey to see if they replicated. We found that institutional trust was a statistically significant predictor of reticent response on surveys. We also obtained self-reported population rates for four types of qualitatively-identified invalid response behavior, as well as evidence that these response types are empirically distinguishable.

Authors

• Albert Anthony Clairmont, University of California- Santa Barbara

• Melissa Gordon Wolf, University of California - Santa Barbara

• Andrew Maul, University of California - Santa Barbara