Validation: What Big Data Reveal About Survey Misreporting and the Real Electorate

Author(s): 

Stephen Ansolabehere and Eitan Hersh

ISPS ID: 
ISPS12-021
Full citation: 
Ansolabehere, Stephen and Eitan Hersh (2012), "Validation: What Big Data Reveal About Survey Misreporting and the Real Electorate," Political Analysis 20(4): 437-459. doi: 10.1093/pan/mps023
Abstract: 
Social scientists rely on surveys to explain political behavior. From consistent overreporting of voter turnout, it is evident that responses on survey items may be unreliable and lead scholars to incorrectly estimate the correlates of participation. Leveraging developments in technology and improvements in public records, we conduct the first-ever fifty-state vote validation. We parse overreporting due to response bias from overreporting due to inaccurate respondents. We find that nonvoters who are politically engaged and equipped with politically relevant resources consistently misreport that they voted. This finding cannot be explained by faulty registration records, which we measure with new indicators of election administration quality. Respondents are found to misreport only on survey items associated with socially desirable outcomes, which we find by validating items beyond voting, like race and party. We show that studies of representation and participation based on survey reports dramatically misestimate the differences between voters and nonvoters.
Supplemental information: 

Link to article here.

Location details: 
United States
Publication date: 
2012
Publication type: 
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