Attitudes and Behavior: The Impact of Privacy and Confidentiality Concerns on Participation in the 2000 Census

Authors: ELEANOR SINGER; JOHN VAN HOEWYK; RANDALL J. NEUGEBAUER

Source: Public Opinion Quarterly, Volume 67, Number 3, 2003 , pp. 368-384(17)

Buy & download fulltext article:

Price: $42.29 plus tax (Refund Policy)

Abstract:

To what extent do concerns about privacy and confidentiality affect people's participation in surveys, in particular the largest U.S. survey, the decennial census? This study presents three separate estimates of the effect of attitudes on behavior. First, it estimates the effect of privacy and confidentiality concerns on willingness to provide an address to a Gallup interviewer. Second, based on the Census Bureau's matching of survey responses to its file of census returns, it estimates the effect of privacy and confidentiality concerns on respondents' return of their census form. Finally, it estimates these effects in one-person households. It concludes that concerns about privacy and confidentiality have a small but statistically significant effect in all three tests, explaining roughly the same amount of variance in the 2000 census as they had in 1990.

Document Type: Research article

Publication date: 2003-01-01

More about this publication?

Published since 1937, Public Opinion Quarterly is among the most frequently cited journals of its kind. Such interdisciplinary leadership benefits academicians and all social science researchers by providing a trusted source for a wide range of high quality research. POQ selectively publishes important theoretical contributions to opinion and communication research, analyses of current public opinion, and investigations of methodological issues involved in survey validity - including questionnaire construction, interviewing and interviewers, sampling strategy, and mode of administration. The theoretical and methodological advances detailed in pages of POQ ensure its importance as a research resource.