Responses to Sensitive Questions Depend on How the Question Is Asked Percent who say they... QUESTIONS ON RESPONDENTS OWN SEXUALITIY QUESTIONS on LGBT FRELATED ISSUES
“We find substantial under-reporting of LGBT [lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender] identity and behaviors as well as underreporting of anti-gay sentiment …even under anonymous and very private conditions,” the researchers wrote in a working paper just published by the National Bureau of Economic Research.
In the results using the experimental technique, self-reports of non-heterosexual identity amounted to 19% of those surveyed using the Veiled Report methods – 65% higher than the 11% in the control group. The share reporting same-sex sexual experiences also grew from 17% in the control group to 27% in the Veiled Report group, they reported. (Because their experiment did not use a random sample of the adult population, the researchers do not attempt to estimate the actual size of the country’s gay and lesbian population.)
The experimental method also increased the rates of anti-gay sentiment. For example, the share who disapproved of having an openly gay manager at work increased from 16% in the control group to 27% in the Veiled Report group. The proportion who thought it should be legal to discriminate when hiring on the basis of sexual orientation also rose from 14% to 25%.
However, those in the Veiled Report treatment were less likely than those in the Direct Report treatment to say that a homosexual person “can change their sexual orientation if they choose to do so” (22% vs. 15%). As the authors suggest, “This indicates that participants saw it more socially desirable to report that sexual orientation is changeable, which goes in the opposite direction of a general ‘pro-LGBT’ norm.”
Responses to Sensitive Questions Depend on How  | the Question Is Asked  | Percent who say they...  | Direct method  | Veiled method  | QUESTIONS ON RESPONDENTS OWN SEXUALITIY  | Difference  | 11%  | Are not heterosexual  | 19%  | 14  | Are attra cted to their  | same sex  | 15  | 17  | Have had a same-sex  | 10  | sexual experience  | 27  | QUESTIONS on LGBT FRELATED ISSUES  | Do not believe gay and  | 19  | lesbian marriages recognized should  | be legally marriages recognized  | 23  | having Would not be happy  | 16  | having a homosexual happy  | having manager at work  | 27  | Oppose laws making it  | 14  | illegal to discriminate  | 10  | against sexual  | 25  | orie nnation in hiring  | Oppose allowing gays  | and children lesbians allowing to adopt  | 19  | children  | Believe homosexuals  | 22  | can change their sexual  | 15  | orientation change  | Note: Differences may not total due to rounding  | Source: The Size of the LGBT Population and the Magnitude of Anti-Gay  | Sentiment are Substantially Unde restimated." working paper 19508 National  | Bureau of Economic Research  | PEW RESEARCH CENTER 