<P> Response bias is a general term for a wide range of cognitive biases that influence the responses of participants away from an accurate or truthful response . These biases are most prevalent in the types of studies and research that involve participant self - report, such as structured interviews or surveys . Response biases can have a large impact on the validity of questionnaires or surveys . </P> <P> Response bias can be induced or caused by a number of factors, all relating to the idea that human subjects do not respond passively to stimuli, but rather actively integrate multiple sources of information to generate a response in a given situation . Because of this, almost any aspect of an experimental condition may potentially bias a respondent . Examples include the phrasing of questions in surveys, the demeanor of the researcher, the way the experiment is conducted, or the desires of the participant to be a good experimental subject and to provide socially desirable responses may affect the response in some way . All of these "artifacts" of survey and self - report research may have the potential to damage the validity of a measure or study . Compounding this issue is that surveys affected by response bias still often have high reliability, which can lure researchers into a false sense of security about the conclusions they draw . </P>

The tendency for respondents to agree with most questions in a survey is known as