2010/10/25 by Alexander L. Janus · 3 citations
Mathematics · Social Sciences · Psychology · #Survey Sampling and Estimation Techniques #Social and Intergroup Psychology #Survey Methodology and Nonresponse #Immigration #Telephone survey #Politics #Social psychology #Social desirability #General Social Survey #Psychology #Demographic economics #Sociology #Political science #Economics #Law #Advertising #Business
paper · doi:10.1111/j.1540-6237.2010.00742.x
openalex publication_date 2010/10/25 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
Objective. Immigration scholars have found that the highly educated and political liberals are considerably less likely to support restrictionist immigration policies than other groups. I ask whether the influence of social desirability pressures in the survey interview is responsible for this finding. Methods. An unobtrusive questioning technique known as the list experiment is used to measure Americans' support for immigration restrictionism. The list experiment can easily be embedded in a standard telephone survey and has been used by previous investigators to study racial attitudes. Results. Restrictionist sentiments are found to be more widespread among the U.S. populace than previous studies have estimated, especially among college graduates and political liberals. Conclusion. My findings have implications for immigration scholars and social scientists who study other sensitive attitudes and behaviors. The most commonly employed strategies to reduce socially desirable responding may not be enough.