You Know What I Know: Interviewer Knowledge Effects in Subjective Expectation Elicitation
Jason T Kerwin1, Natalia Ordaz Reynoso1
1Department of Applied Economics and Minnesota Population Center, University of Minnesota, Saint Paul, MN, USA.
Demography
|April 9, 2021
Summary
Interviewer knowledge in face-to-face surveys can influence respondent beliefs, shifting reported numbers. Stronger prior beliefs in individuals make them less susceptible to this interviewer effect.
Area of Science:
- Social Science Research
- Survey Methodology
- Psychological Research
Background:
- Directly eliciting subjective beliefs through surveys is common in social science.
- Face-to-face surveys present a challenge: interviewer knowledge may bias respondent beliefs.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the impact of interviewer knowledge on reported subjective beliefs in surveys.
- To quantify the effect of interviewer priming on survey responses.
Main Methods:
- A randomized experiment was conducted using interviewers to implement an information treatment.
- Interviewer training aimed to prime respondents with specific numerical information.
Main Results:
- Reported beliefs were significantly shifted by interviewer knowledge.
- Responses decreased by approximately 0.3 standard deviations due to interviewer priming.
- Individuals with stronger prior beliefs were less influenced by interviewer knowledge.
Conclusions:
- Interviewer knowledge poses a significant threat to the validity of reported beliefs in surveys.
- Strategies for interviewer recruitment, survey design, and experiment setup are needed to mitigate this bias.
- Understanding these effects is crucial for accurate social science research.
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