Title: 

Bayesian Pooling of Self- and Peer-Reports to Improve Measurement of Sensitive Behaviors

Abstract: 

Prior literature shows that self-reports, especially those of sensitive behaviors, tend to be biased. For example, respondents may over-report their family origin and volunteering experiences while under-reporting their drinking and smoking behaviors. In this study I examine a social network-based approach to addressing self-reporting bias, which is to ask peers (e.g. classmates or co-workers) to provide alternative reports that can be used to cross-validate and supplement self-reports. I first formalize the data generation process statistically by proposing a model containing two sub-models, one for the self-reports and the other for the peer-reports. In each of the sub-models, I treat the observed report as a probabilistic realization of a truthful report and a false report. The model can incorporate both self- and peer-characteristics and also dyadic characteristics. A Bayesian approach helps make the model self-containing by imposing a prior on the unknown ego's behavior. Then the Bayesian approach simulates self- and peer-reports according to the data generation process iteratively until the simulated reports emulate the observed reports. Through a case study on self- and peer-reports of smoking among adolescents, I demonstrate that the Bayesian approach can not only reveal how multiple characteristics are related to reporting biases but also incorporate these characteristics effectively into the imputation of the true behavior.

Keywords: Self-reporting Bias; Peer Reports; Multiple Reports; Informant Accuracy

Bio: 

Dr. Weihua An is Professor and Chair of Sociology and Professor of Data and Decision Sciences at Emory University. He is also an affiliated faculty member of the East Asian Studies Program, the Goizueta Business School, and the Rollins School of Public Health. He earned his Ph.D. in Sociology and A.M. in Statistics from Harvard University. Dr. An's research advances theories and methods in network analysis and causal inference. He has published widely in both methodological and substantive journals and also authored multiple statistical packages, which have received 200K downloads in total. He currently serves as the Editor of Sociological Methodology and the Chair-Elect of the Methodology section of the American Sociological Association. He is a recipient of the Faculty Teaching Award from Emory Sociology and the Clifford Clogg Award and the Leo Goodman Award from the American Sociological Association. He has advised 28 PhD dissertations and ten undergraduate honors theses.