What is response bias in surveys?

• A. A systematic error due to nonrepresentative samples.
• B. Tendency for certain groups to answer in ways that do not reflect their true views, often due to social desirability or question wording.
• C. The margin of error around the estimate.
• D. The effect of media on opinions.

Answer: (B)

Response bias occurs when the answers given in a survey don’t reflect respondents’ true views, often because people want to present themselves in a favorable light or because the way a question is worded nudges them toward a certain response. This distortion can happen with sensitive or embarrassing topics, where social desirability leads to overreporting of socially approved behaviors or underreporting of disapproved ones. It can also arise from how questions are framed or ordered, which can steer responses unintentionally. This differs from sampling bias, which is about who is surveyed, and from the margin of error, which reflects random sampling variability; it also isn’t about how media influences opinions. So the best description is the tendency for respondents to answer in ways that do not reflect their true views, often due to social desirability or question wording.