More generally, research on asking sensitive questions in survey research reveals that to the extent that respondents perceive questions regarding discrimination to be socially unacceptable or undesirable, they are likely to underreport those experiences (Tourangeau and Yan 2007). Research reveals that the mode of administration of sensitive questions makes a difference in terms of the response. In particular, the presence of others in the interview context adversely affects accurately collecting complete data. Thus, eliminating the presence of an interviewer by using a self-administered instrument and using “forgiving” or normalizing wording for sensitive questions can be helpful in addressing this issue (Tourangeau and Yan 2007).
