Differences between identified and anonymous subjects in responding to an industrial opinion survey

Abstract

A comparison of attitude survey responses between identified and nonidentified manufacturing employees was made under 2 conditions of identification. 1 involved a face-to-face designation by the respondee's manager as to which group he was to be in (high threat), and the other involved a random allocation as the respondee entered the testing room (low threat). All Ss were assured confidentiality of their responses, and the nonidentified respondees were assured anonymity. A positive distortion in responses took place under both identified conditions but significantly more under high threat. Moreover, the items themselves produced variable distortion. Items dealing with salary and with ratings of top management produced consistent positive distortions, whereas items dealing with work pressure and S's manager produced little or no distortion even under conditions of high threat. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)