Replication Data for: Self-Administered Field Surveys on Sensitive Topics

Research on sensitive topics uses a variety of methods to combat response bias on in-person surveys. Increasingly, researchers allow respondents to self-administer responses using electronic devices as an alternative to more complicated experimental approaches. Using an experiment embedded in a survey in the rural Philippines, we test the effects of several such methods on response rates and falsification. We asked respondents a sensitive question about reporting insurgents to the police alongside a non-sensitive question about school completion. We randomly assigned respondents to answer these questions either verbally, through a ``forced choice" experiment, or through self-enumeration. We find that self-enumeration significantly reduced non-response compared to direct questioning, but find little evidence of differential rates of falsification. Forced choice yielded highly unlikely estimates, which we attribute to non-strategic falsification. These results suggest that self-administered surveys can be an effective for measuring sensitive topics on surveys when response rates are a priority.