Should we trust survey data? Assessing response simplification and data fabrication |
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| Institution: | 1. University of Bonn, Institute of Political Science and Sociology, 53113 Bonn, Lennéstr. 27, Germany;2. Dept. of Sociology and Social Anthropology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS B3H 1P9, Canada;1. University of Miami, United States;2. Ohio State University, United States;1. Division of Urology, Department of Oncology, School of Medicine, San Luigi Hospital, University of Turin, Orbassano, Turin, Italy;2. European Society of Residents in Urology (ESRU), Arnhem, The Netherlands;3. Unit of Urological Robotic Surgery and Renal Transplantation, University of Florence, Careggi Hospital, Florence, Italy;4. Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, University of Florence, Florence, Italy;5. Unit of Urological Oncologic Minimally-Invasive Robotic Surgery and Andrology, University of Florence, Careggi Hospital, Florence, Italy;6. Department of Urology, Campus Biomedico University, Rome, Italy;1. Pew Research Center, United States;2. Göttingen University & Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, Germany |
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| Abstract: | While many factors, such as unit- and item nonresponse, threaten data quality, we focus on data contamination that arises primarily from task simplification processes. We argue that such processes can occur at two levels. First, respondents themselves may engage in various response strategies that minimize their time and effort in completing the survey. Second, interviewers and other employees of the research institute might take various shortcuts to reduce their time and/or to fulfill the requirements of their contracts; in the simplest form this can be done via copy-and-paste procedures.This paper examines the cross-national quality of the reports from principals of schools participating in the 2009 PISA. We introduce two measures of data quality to document that extreme response simplification characterizes the behavior of substantial numbers of school principals in numerous countries. Additionally, we discovered strong evidence of data fabrication in several countries. |
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| Keywords: | Data quality Data fabrication Undifferentiated responses Identical response pattern |
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