How Indirect Questioning Techniques May Promote Democracy: A Preelection Polling Experiment

Socially desirable responding may cause differences between preelection polls and election outcomes. Bias-free preelection polls are, however, important because they influence election outcomes. Benefiting from a unique opportunity, we experimentally controlled social desirability using the Crosswis...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Basic and applied social psychology Vol. 39; no. 4; pp. 209 - 217
Main Authors: Waubert de Puiseau, Berenike, Hoffmann, Adrian, Musch, Jochen
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Mahwah Psychology Press 04.07.2017
Subjects:
Bias
Democracy
Elections
Political campaigns
Polls & surveys
Social desirability
Strategic voting
Voting
ISSN:0197-3533, 1532-4834
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Socially desirable responding may cause differences between preelection polls and election outcomes. Bias-free preelection polls are, however, important because they influence election outcomes. Benefiting from a unique opportunity, we experimentally controlled social desirability using the Crosswise Model in a poll prior to the German federal election in 2013. We found that due to strategic voting, outcome expectations were related to voting intentions; the election outcome was therefore likely distorted by social desirability bias in preelection polls. We recommend using indirect questioning techniques whenever a vote for at least one of the competing parties may be perceived as socially undesirable.
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ISSN:0197-3533
1532-4834
DOI:10.1080/01973533.2017.1331351