In media and market research, a general term representing a bias or tendency for research participants to respond in a dishonest or misleading way, either consciously or nonconsciously. For example, certain respondents may tend to agree with an interviewer, no matter what the interviewer asks. Other respondents may give generally truthful responses but withhold information that they think is embarrassing or shameful. This can be caused by a variety of factors and can significantly impact the validity of research involving participant self-reporting (see “Self-Report”, see “Explicit”). Also referred to as “Survey Bias.”
