Social Desirability Bias in Measures of Norm Violations and Compliance during the Covid-19 Pandemic
Results of an Experimental Survey in Europe
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 13103448 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Alexander Helbing (0009-0008-5957-0995, Chemnitz University of Technology), Ivar Krumpal (0000-0003-2149-2203, Leipzig University) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 11 |
| Publication date | 2025-04-18 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Socius Sociological Research for a Dynamic World (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2378-0231 • E-ISSN: 2378-0231 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/23780231251328202 |
| OpenAlex | W4411617912 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 51 |
Social desirability bias is a problem in surveys collecting data on norm violations and compliance. If confronted with sensitive questions, respondents systematically underreport norm violations and overreport norm compliance. This leads to biased survey estimates and poor data quality. To improve the measurement of norm violations and compliance, the item count technique (ICT) has been developed. The ICT anonymizes the question-and-answer process. In their experimental survey ( n = 2,510), the authors use the ICT to study norm violations and compliance during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in Europe. More specifically, they estimate the prevalence of vaccination certificate falsification and self-isolation with COVID-19 symptoms. Estimates obtained using standard direct questioning (DQ; n = 1,006) are compared with ICT estimates ( n = 1,504). As a result, the authors find no significant difference between estimates of vaccination certificate falsification (4.8 percent with DQ vs. 4.5 percent with the ICT). At the same time, they find a significant difference between estimates of self-isolation with COVID-19 symptoms (87.7 percent with DQ vs. 76.0 percent with the ICT). Conventional survey measures based on DQ thus likely overestimate the extent of norm compliance in a pandemic such as COVID-19
2019-20 coronavirus outbreak · Compliance (psychology · Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19 · Norm (philosophy · Pandemic · Pathology · Political science · Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2 · COVID-19 Pandemic Impacts · Law · Medicine · Psychology · Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment · Social Psychology · Vaccine Coverage and Hesitancy · Virology
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| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2026 - 2026 (1) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |