Do Falsifiers Leave Traces? Finding Recognizable Response Patterns in Interviewer Falsifications

Abstract: Fraud by interviewers is a ubiquitous threat to data quality in survey practice, whenever face-to-face surveys are conducted. Particularly if interviewers use stereotypes about respondents to fill in questionnaires, falsifications can limit the variety of possible answers, lead erroneously to significant correlations and distort survey results. In addition to external control mechanisms to detect fraud (such as postcards or time stamps) more recent research has started to also consider internal indicators (such as the number of missing values or open answers) as a monitoring strategy. This latter approach relies on ex-post statistical analyses and implicitly assumes that falsifiers apply rational behavioral strategies which result in detectable response patterns. This study examines to what extent fieldwork monitoring can benefit from such approaches, by empirically assessing how effective different indicators are at detecting known cases of fabrication. In contrast to most previou

Object Details

• Location: Deutsche Nationalbibliothek Frankfurt am Main
• Extent: Online-Ressource
• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Do Falsifiers Leave Traces? Finding Recognizable Response Patterns in Interviewer Falsifications ; volume:15 ; number:2 ; year:2021 ; pages:125-160 ; Veröffentlichungsversion ; begutachtet (peer reviewed) ; Methods, data, analyses ; 15, Heft 2 (2021), 125-160

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Sozialwissenschaften, Soziologie, Anthropologie

Contributors, Places and Time

• Creator: Walzenbach, Sandra

Further information

• DOI: 10.12758/mda.2021.02
• URN: urn:nbn:de:101:1-2022090607273102936861
• Rights: Open Access; Der Zugriff auf das Objekt ist unbeschränkt möglich.
• Last update: 15.08.2025, 7:35 AM CEST