Doctoral Dissertation Research: Overreporting of Socially Desirable Behavior in Surveys

博士论文研究：调查中对社会理想行为的过度报道

• 批准号: 0824759
• 负责人: John Delamater
• 金额: $ 0.49万
• 依托单位: University of Wisconsin-Madison
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2008
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2008-09-15 至 2009-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0824759&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Overreporting; Socially

SES-0824759John DelamaterPhilip BrennerUniversity of Wisconsin-MadisonThis project studies the overreporting of socially desirable behavior in traditional sample surveys. Often ignored or simply assumed away, measurement errors -- like overreporting -- can lead to inaccurate and misleading findings. However, when directly investigated, they can provide researchers with an opportunity to better understand human behavior. Estimating overreporting as the difference between measures from two different survey modes, this study examines the survey artifact using religious service attendance as a sample case. Recent work has challenged the validity of common survey measures of church attendance and raised questions about how US citizens compare to rest of the developed world: are Americans alone in their overreporting of church attendance, or do Canadians and Europeans exaggerate the frequency of these behaviors as well? Using multiple datasets spanning five decades and fourteen countries, this study compares trends in attendance to shed light on these questions. More importantly, it will pursue the cause of differential overreporting between countries in light of three related hypotheses: (1) the nature of traditional survey questions lead to identity priming during the survey interview, which (2) allows overreporting to be explained as a function of the importance of socially desirable identities that (3) explains the variation in overreporting between nations as the difference in religious identity importance from country to country. American religious exceptionalism will then be redefined not in terms of actual behavior, but rather in terms of continuing high levels of religious identity importance. These high levels of importance will be argued to be the cause of exceptionally high levels of American overreporting. This approach also contributes to the development of sociological methodology by: (1) using time diary data in a novel way, thereby highlighting the time diary as a flexible and powerful, although underutilized, resource; and (2) applying matching methods in an innovative way to allow analysis at the individual level, combining estimates from the two modes.Broader impacts. This study's focus on measurement error will illuminate one corner of an oft-ignored but potentially critical problem. Invalid measures can lead not only to faulty statistical inferences, but also poor policy decisions. Therefore, improvements in survey measurements, like those investigated in this study, benefit not only socialscientists, but also policy makers and stakeholders by improving the quality of data being used in decision making. Research findings from this dissertation will be disseminated using multiple venues and formats. Findings will be of potential interest to academic and non-academic audiences across the spectrum of social science disciplines.

SES-0824759John DelamaterPhilip Brenner 威斯康星大学麦迪逊分校该项目研究传统抽样调查中对社会理想行为的过度报告。 测量错误（如过度报告）经常被忽视或简单地假设，可能导致不准确和误导性的结果。然而，当直接调查时，它们可以为研究人员提供更好地了解人类行为的机会。 本研究将过度报告估计为两种不同调查模式测量值之间的差异，并以宗教仪式出席率作为样本案例来检验调查工件。 最近的研究对教会出席率的常见调查指标的有效性提出了质疑，并提出了关于美国公民与其他发达国家相比如何的问题：是美国人独自高估了教会出席率，还是加拿大人和欧洲人也夸大了这些行为的频率？这项研究使用跨越五十个十年和十四个国家的多个数据集，比较了出勤趋势，以阐明这些问题。更重要的是，它将根据三个相关假设来探究国家之间差异性多报的原因：（1）传统调查问题的性质导致调查访谈期间的身份启动，（2）允许将多报解释为社会理想身份重要性的函数，（3）将国家之间多报的差异解释为不同国家宗教身份重要性的差异。届时，美国的宗教例外论将不再根据实际行为，而是根据宗教身份重要性的持续高水平来重新定义。如此高的重要性将被认为是美国过度报告的原因。这种方法还通过以下方式促进社会学方法论的发展：（1）以新颖的方式使用时间日记数据，从而突出时间日记作为一种灵活而强大的资源，尽管尚未得到充分利用； (2) 以创新的方式应用匹配方法，以便在个人层面进行分析，结合两种模式的估计。更广泛的影响。 这项研究对测量误差的关注将揭示一个经常被忽视但潜在关键问题的一个角落。无效的措施不仅会导致错误的统计推断，还会导致糟糕的政策决策。因此，调查测量的改进，就像本研究中所调查的那样，不仅有利于社会科学家，而且可以提高决策中使用的数据质量，从而使政策制定者和利益相关者受益。本论文的研究成果将通过多种场所和形式传播。研究结果将引起整个社会科学学科领域的学术和非学术受众的潜在兴趣。