Is undesirable answer behaviour consistent across surveys? An investigation into respondent characteristics

In this study, we investigate to what extent the respondent characteristics age and educational level may be associated with undesirable answer behaviour (UAB) consistently across surveys. We use data from panel respondents who participated in ten general population surveys of CentERdata and Statistics Netherlands. A new method to visually present UAB and an inventive adaptation of a non-parametric effect size measure are used. The occurrence of UAB of respondents with specific characteristics is summarized in density distributions that we refer to as respondent profiles. An adaptation of the robust effect size Cliff’s Delta is used to compare respondent profiles on the potentially consistent occurrence of UAB across surveys. Taking all surveys together, the degree of UAB varies by age and education. The results do not show consistent UAB across individual surveys: Age and educational level are associated with a relatively higher occurrence of UAB for some surveys, but a relatively lower occurrence for other surveys. We conclude that the occurrence of UAB across surveys may be more dependent on the survey and its items than on respondent’s cognitive ability.