Affiliations: [a] Department of Communication and Economics, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Reggio Emilia, Italy | [b] Departmentof Economics, Statistics and Finance “Giovanni Anania”, Arcavacata di Rende (CS), Italy
Correspondence:
[*]
Corresponding author: Elvira Pelle, Department of Communication and Economics, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Reggio Emilia, Italy. E-mail: elvira.pelle@unimore.it.
Abstract: Surveying human behaviors, especially in demographic, social, medical and public health research, often involves sensitive issues. Posing direct inquiries about stigmatizing or threatening topics may lead survey participants to refuse to answer or to give untruthful responses. Nonresponse and misreporting denote measurement errors that are difficult to treat and are likely to yield unreliable analyses of the surveyed topics. This problem can be mitigated by adopting survey methods that enhance anonymity and respondent cooperation. One possibility is to create a trustful and confidential relationship between the interviewer and the survey participants. Alternatively, it is possible to fully protect privacy by adopting indirect questioning procedures that elicit information without posing sensitive questions directly. We consider both above-mentioned possibilities showing the results of a real study which explores the effectiveness of the randomized response crossed model proposed by Lee et al. (2013) to produce prevalence estimates for two sensitive traits, cannabis use and its legalization.
Keywords: Cannabis use and legalization, mixed-mode research, prevalence estimates, trustworthy interviewer
