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Randomized Response Sampling: How to Ask Sensitive Questions

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Activity-Based Statistics

Part of the book series: Textbooks in mathematical sciences ((TIMS))

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Abstract

Pollsters often want information on issues that are considered sensitive. The IRS cannot estimate the proportion of persons who cheat on their taxes by asking a random sample of persons if they cheat, because everyone (almost) will say “no,” including some who are lying when they give that answer. The randomized response technique is a way around the problem of people lying when they are asked a sensitive question.

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References

  1. Sarah Boxer (1987), “AIDS and epidemiology. Women and drugs,” Discover, 8 (7): 12.

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  2. S.L. Warner (1966), “Randomized response: A survey technique for eliminating evasive answer bias,” J. Amer. Stat. Assoc., 60: 63–69.

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© 1996 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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Scheaffer, R.L., Watkins, A., Gnanadesikan, M., Witmer, J.A. (1996). Randomized Response Sampling: How to Ask Sensitive Questions. In: Activity-Based Statistics. Textbooks in mathematical sciences. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-3843-8_29

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-3843-8_29

  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-0-387-94598-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4757-3843-8

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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