Measuring xenophobia: Social desirability and survey mode effects

Abstract

The literature on sensitive questions shows that the survey mode affects the answers obtained. This acquires special relevance when measuring racism and xenophobia. This article offers the results of a quasi-experimental survey comparing three survey modes: 1) the conventional face-to-face survey; 2) a modified face-to-face condition where respondents answered a subset of questions in a self-administered form; 3) a completely non-interviewer condition where questionnaires were first handed out for the interviewees to fill in on their own, and collected on another agreed date. Consistent with our hypothesis, some support for the social desirability bias and survey mode effects was obtained. Self-administration of questionnaires encouraged declarations of xenophobia, but more so when subtle or indirect scales of rejection versus acceptance of immigrants were used. The drawback was the under-representation of respondents with a low level of education in self-administered methods. Contrary to our expectations, less educated respondents were affected by the survey mode.