THE RANDOMIZED RESPONSE TECHNIQUE: A REVIEW AND APPLICATION

The purpose of this report is to describe a relatively new interviewing technique and examine its potential use in the field of highway safety research. This technique, which intends to encourage truthful responses in personal interviews on sensitive issues, is known as the Randomized Response Technique (RRT). After a brief introduction in Chapter I, Chapter II outlines the theoretical development of the technique, from its inception by Warner in 1965. Chapter III presents the results of some of the more pertinent field research, conducted on such topics as illegitimacy, abortion and drug usage, and then Chapter IV describes HSRC's efforts to extend application of the technique in the area of highway safety. From its experience with the RRT, HSRC concludes that much additional field research is needed before the technique can be of any great value to highway safety researchers. Also included in the report are two appendices which extend the theoretical development of the technique. Appendix A delineates two variations on a two stage randomized response scheme (TSRRS), while Appendix B outlines procedures for using a RRT on a subsample of a larger sample of possibly misclassified responses, to obtain a more reliable estimate of the parameter of interest. /HSRI/

• Corporate Authors:

  University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

  Highway Safety Research Center
  Chapel Hill, NC  United States  27599
• Authors:
  • Hochberg, Y
  • Stutts, J C
  • Reinfurt, D W
• Publication Date: 1976-5

Media Info

• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 95 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Highway safety; Interviewing; Stochastic processes
• Old TRIS Terms: Response
• Subject Areas: Data and Information Technology; Highways; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00145072
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: Highway Safety Research Institute
• Contract Numbers: DOT-HS-4-00897
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Apr 13 1977 12:00AM