An Investigation of Interview Method, Threat and Response Distortion

Abstract This validation study examined the joint effects of question threat and method of administration on response distortion using four interviewing techniques. The level of threat was varied by asking questions about library card ownership, voting, bankruptcy involvement, and having been charged with drunken driving. The results indicated that response distortion increased sharply as threat increased. None of the data methods was clearly superior to all other methods for all types of threatening questions. Randomized response gave the lowest distortion on questions about socially undesirable acts, but even with this procedure there was still a 35 percent understatement of drunken driving.