Do they really care? Social desirability bias in attitudes towards corruption
Direct estimates based on election returns show that corruption is mildly punished at the polls. A large majority of survey respondents, however, often tend to state that they do not like corruption and will not support corrupt politicians. This has been interpreted as a product of social desirabili...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
SAGE Publishing
2022-11-01
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| Series: | Research & Politics |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1177/20531680221141754 |
| _version_ | 1811320663728717824 |
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| author | Sofia Breitenstein Eva Anduiza Jordi Muñoz |
| author_facet | Sofia Breitenstein Eva Anduiza Jordi Muñoz |
| author_sort | Sofia Breitenstein |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Direct estimates based on election returns show that corruption is mildly punished at the polls. A large majority of survey respondents, however, often tend to state that they do not like corruption and will not support corrupt politicians. This has been interpreted as a product of social desirability bias: interviewees prefer to report socially accepted attitudes (rejection of corruption) instead of truthful responses (intention to vote for their preferred candidates regardless of malfeasance). We test to what extent this is the case by using a list experiment that allows interviewees to be questioned in an unobtrusive way, removing the possible effects of social desirability. Our results show that the great majority of respondents report intentions to electorally punish allegedly corrupt candidates even when asked in an unobtrusive way. We discuss the implications of this finding for the limited electoral accountability of corruption. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-13T13:03:27Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-d42e88518fae430d96949ff1c6c924cb |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2053-1680 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-13T13:03:27Z |
| publishDate | 2022-11-01 |
| publisher | SAGE Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Research & Politics |
| spelling | doaj.art-d42e88518fae430d96949ff1c6c924cb2022-12-22T02:45:51ZengSAGE PublishingResearch & Politics2053-16802022-11-01910.1177/20531680221141754Do they really care? Social desirability bias in attitudes towards corruptionSofia BreitensteinEva AnduizaJordi MuñozDirect estimates based on election returns show that corruption is mildly punished at the polls. A large majority of survey respondents, however, often tend to state that they do not like corruption and will not support corrupt politicians. This has been interpreted as a product of social desirability bias: interviewees prefer to report socially accepted attitudes (rejection of corruption) instead of truthful responses (intention to vote for their preferred candidates regardless of malfeasance). We test to what extent this is the case by using a list experiment that allows interviewees to be questioned in an unobtrusive way, removing the possible effects of social desirability. Our results show that the great majority of respondents report intentions to electorally punish allegedly corrupt candidates even when asked in an unobtrusive way. We discuss the implications of this finding for the limited electoral accountability of corruption.https://doi.org/10.1177/20531680221141754 |
| spellingShingle | Sofia Breitenstein Eva Anduiza Jordi Muñoz Do they really care? Social desirability bias in attitudes towards corruption Research & Politics |
| title | Do they really care? Social desirability bias in attitudes towards corruption |
| title_full | Do they really care? Social desirability bias in attitudes towards corruption |
| title_fullStr | Do they really care? Social desirability bias in attitudes towards corruption |
| title_full_unstemmed | Do they really care? Social desirability bias in attitudes towards corruption |
| title_short | Do they really care? Social desirability bias in attitudes towards corruption |
| title_sort | do they really care social desirability bias in attitudes towards corruption |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1177/20531680221141754 |
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