Design and Analysis of the Randomized Response Technique

• 成果类型: Review
• 署名作者: Blair, Graeme; Imai, Kosuke; Zhou, Yang-Yang
• 署名单位: Columbia University; Princeton University
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN STATISTICAL ASSOCIATION
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0162-1459
• DOI: 10.1080/01621459.2015.1050028
• 发表日期: 2015
• 页码: 1304-1319
• 关键词: asking sensitive questions; quantitative data; induced-abortion; em algorithm; MODEL; PREVALENCE; validation; INFORMATION; validity; BEHAVIOR

摘要

About a half century ago, in 1965, Warner proposed the randomized response method as a survey technique to reduce potential bias due to nonresponse and social desirability when asking questions about sensitive behaviors and beliefs. This method asks respondents to use a randomization device, such as a coin flip, whose outcome is unobserved by the interviewer. By introducing random noise, the method conceals individual responses and protects respondent privacy. While numerous methodological advances have been made, we find surprisingly few applications of this promising survey technique. In this article, we address this gap by (1) reviewing standard designs available to applied researchers, (2) developing various multivariate regression techniques for substantive analyses, (3) proposing power analyses to help improve research designs, (4) presenting new robust designs that are based on less stringent assumptions than those of the standard designs, and (5) making all described methods available through open-source software. We illustrate some of these methods with an original survey about militant groups in Nigeria.