A generalized randomized response technique

Abstract

To eliminate a major source of bias in surveys of human populations resulting from respondents refusal to cooparate in cases where a question of sensitive nature is involved, the idea of "randomized response" was introduced by Warner (1965). In this paper, an alternative randomized response technique is presented which improves upon the pioneering work of Warner (1965). The procedure includes Warner's method as a special case for a specific choice of the parameters. In addition, a generalization of the proposed method is presented. © Springer-Verlag 2003.