This article is an empirical contribution to the evaluation of the randomized response technique (RRT), a prominent procedure to elicit more valid responses to sensitive questions in surveys. Based on individual validation data, we focus on two questions: First, does the RRT lead to higher...

In einem "sensitive topic survey" mit Studierenden der Universität Mainz (n=578) wurde die Brauchbarkeit von drei Techniken zur Erhebung heikler Sachverhalte untersucht: Wording/Framing-Techniken, die Technik des vertraulichen Kuverts und die Randomized-Response-Technik. Bezüglich...

Gaining valid answers to so-called sensitive questions is an age-old problem in survey research. Various techniques have been developed to guarantee anonymity and minimize the respondent's feelings of jeopardy. Two such techniques are the randomized response technique (RRT) and the unmatched...

Gaining valid answers to so-called sensitive questions is an age-old problem in survey research. Various techniques have been developed to guarantee anonymity and minimize the respondent’s feelings of jeopardy. Two such techniques are the randomized response technique (RRT) and the...

This article evaluates three different questioning techniques for measuring the prevalence of plagiarism in student papers: the randomized response technique (RRT), the item count technique (ICT), and the crosswise model (CM). In three independent experimental surveys with Swiss and German...

In spring 2011, the students of the University of Bern and ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology) in Switzerland were invited to participate in an online survey called "Exams and written papers" ("Prüfungen und schriftliche Arbeiten an der Universität Bern" at the University of...

Self-administered online surveys provide a higher level of privacy protection to respondents than surveys administered by an interviewer. Yet, studies indicate that asking sensitive questions is problematic also in self-administered surveys. Because respondents might not be willing to reveal the...

In this article, “Benford’s law†is applied to the “randomized response technique†(RRT) to increase the validity of answers to sensitive questions. Using the Newcomb–Benford distribution as a randomizing device has several advantages. It is easy to explain and...

Summary This article evaluates three different questioning techniques for measuring the prevalence of plagiarism in student papers: the randomized response technique (RRT), the item count technique (ICT), and the crosswise model (CM). In three independent experimental surveys with Swiss and...