Question

Select ALL the examples of response bias as a result of social desirability. 

• As part of a study on college student obligations, a professor asks his students how long they study every day for his class. One student has never studied for this class but tells the professor he studies 6-7 hours each night. 

• A medical researcher is interested in the health effects of masturbation. She asks a male patient how often he engages in masturbation, and the patient significantly under-reports how frequently he masturbates. 

• A researcher studying differences in income asks participants how much money they make per year. A participant is embarrassed by his income level but honestly reports that he makes $12,000 a year. 

• A counselor at a drug rehabilitation center is administering a survey. The counselor asks a rehab patient who tested positive for various drugs how often she uses and the patient reports she has never tried drugs.

Answer 1

1, 2 and 4 are all examples of response bias.

Response bias is where the subjects knowingly falsely or inaccurately answer the critical questions for the experiment or the survey conducted. There may be various reasons for it.

In our examples, we see that the student lies about his study hours, the patient lies about his frequency, and the drug patient lies about the consumption. Hence they exhibit response bias.

In the 3rd case, the individual gives the correct answer. He is not manipulating his response, so he is not biased.