<P> While both sides have support in the literature, there appears to be greater empirical support for the significance of response bias . To add strength to the claims of those who argue the importance of response bias, many of the studies that reject the significance of response bias report multiple methodological issues in their studies . For example, they have extremely small samples that are not representative of the population as a whole, they only considered a small subset of potential variables that could be affected by response bias, and their measurements were conducted over the phone with poorly worded statements . </P> <P> Acquiescence bias, which is also referred to as "yea - saying", is a category of response bias in which respondents to a survey have a tendency to agree with all the questions in a measure . This bias in responding may represent a form of dishonest reporting because the participant automatically endorses any statements, even if the result is contradictory responses . For example, a participant could be asked whether they endorse the following statement, "I prefer to spend time with others" but then later on in the survey also endorses "I prefer to spend time alone," which are contradictory statements . This is a distinct problem for self - report research because it does not allow a researcher to understand or gather accurate data from any type of question that asks for a participant to endorse or reject statements . Researchers have approached this issue by thinking about the bias in two different ways . The first deals with the idea that participants are trying to be agreeable, in order to avoid the disapproval of the researcher . A second cause for this type of bias was proposed by Lee Cronbach, when he argued that it is likely due to a problem in the cognitive processes of the participant, instead of the motivation to please the researcher . He argues that it may be due to biases in memory where an individual recalls information that supports endorsement of the statement, and ignores contradicting information . </P> <P> Researchers have several methods to try and reduce this form of bias . Primarily, they attempt to make balanced response sets in a given measure, meaning that there are a balanced number of positively and negatively worded questions . This means that if a researcher was hoping to examine a certain trait with a given questionnaire, half of the questions would have a "yes" response to identify the trait, and the other half would have a "no" response to identify the trait . </P> <P> Nay - saying is the opposite form of this bias . It occurs when a participant always chooses to deny or not endorse any statements in a survey or measure . This has a similar effect of invalidating any kinds of endorsements that participants may make over the course of the experiment . </P>

Researchers in psychology have to see it to believe it