Sample interview questions: How do you address potential biases related to social influence or conformity in public opinion research?
Sample answer:
Addressing Social Influence and Conformity Biases in Public Opinion Research
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Experimental designs: Implement random assignment techniques to control for social influence and conformity effects. For instance, in a survey experiment, participants can be randomly assigned to different experimental conditions, each with varying levels of social pressure or conformity pressure.
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Anonymity and privacy: Guarantee respondents’anonymity and confidentiality to reduce social desirability bias and encourage honest responses. This can be done through self-administered surveys, online surveys, or interviews conducted in private settings.
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Neutral wording: Utilize neutral and unambiguous language in questionnaires and interviews to avoid leading respondents toward particular responses. The wording of questions should be carefully crafted to minimize bias and ensure that respondents provide their genuine opinions.
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Response bias corrections: Apply statistical techniques to adjust for potential response biases. For example, propensity score matching or regression discontinuity design can be employed to create comparison groups that are similar on observed characteristics, thereby reducing the influence of unobserved confounding fa… Read full answer
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