Asking sensitive questions indirectly

Abstract

We propose a new method for conducting surveys on sensitive topics which does not require direct answers from the respondents. It overcomes some of the difficulties associated with traditional randomized response techniques and is applicable to both qualitative and quantitative characteristics. Data collected using the proposed method are distributed according to a mixture distribution and the problem reduces to that of estimating a mixing proportion or a mixing distribution. The method can be extended easily to allow multiple trials. This enables us to improve the efficiency of our estimator without sacrificing respondent protection and at no increase in sampling cost.