Age Differences in Response Accuracy for Factual Survey Questions

The correspondence between survey responses to a number of factual questions and information from independent verification sources (i.e., concurrent validity) was examined by age of respondents. The relevant data were drawn from four different surveys that included questions referring to issues of physical health, voting behavior, transportation, charitable contributions, library patronage, and age. Generally, there was little evidence that older respondents report factual information less validly than younger respondents; only chronological age was reported somewhat less validly by older respondents.