The quality of information obtained in surveys strongly depends on the answers provided by respondents. Within this context, the thesis focuses on the honesty of respondents when answering sensitive questions in web surveys. Namely, certain questions are more prone to socially desirable answers. In this case, the respondent does not give the correct answer, but answers with a certain bias and in a socially desirable way.
We examined the literature of the past researches about answering sensitive questions. Based on this overview we conducted an experiment (n=478). The aim of the experiment was to find out what are the effects of the loading–question strategy on sensitive questions. We used the topics of alcohol consumption and drunk driving. The respondents were divided into two groups. The first group was answering questions without any introduction while the other group was answering questions where specific loading questions were first introduced. The results showed that the loading-question strategy plays an important role in the way respondents answer questions, as it strongly encourage them to be more honest in their answers.
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