The Essence of Validation Studies in Research

A large amount of research has been conducted on the subject of validation of self-reported voting behaviour. These studies are focused on understanding which variables are best suited to validation and on understanding what ‘misreporting’ is. 

Reasons for Misreporting

There are many different reasons respondents may misreport answers, including:

1. Social Desirability: Respondents may misreport answers so as to present themselves in a more positive light and therefore appear more socially desirable. 
2. Memory Issues: Respondents with memory issues may misreport the amount or direction of variables unintentionally. 
3. Source Monitoring: Respondents may be unable to distinguish a specific event from others that are very similar. 

Conditions of the Interview

Voting studies experience an increase in overreporting as the amount of elapsed time from election day increases. This suggests a role for episodic memory. However, research conducted on vote validation studies reflects that the presence of other people does not influence misreporting.

Research on mode effects suggests that survey techniques that have greater privacy are often able to obtain responses on behaviour that are considered sensitive or less desirable. This indicates that self-administered questionnaires are likely to produce higher self-reported levels of behaviours such as smoking than survey methods that involve an interviewer or moderator present.