Survey Methodology

This staff study discusses an innovative technique that GAO has devised for collecting data on sensitive policy-relevant topics. The "three card method" is designed to collect sensitive information in large-scale surveys. It is intended to allow estimation of the needed statistics while maximizing response privacy and reducing "question threat." If successful, this technique might eventually fill in key data gaps and improve statistics that would be helpful in making public policy decisions. GAO's main goal is to spur interest in--and, where appropriate, encourage more development and testing of -- this promising, albeit not yet fully validated, technique.

GAO noted that: (1) the three-card method is designed to collect sensitive data in large-scale surveys; it is intended to allow estimation of the needed statistics while maximizing response privacy and reducing "question threat"; (2) GAO originally devised this technique to collect data on immigration, but it believes that the technique might also prove useful in a variety of other sensitive policy areas where the collection of relevant information has, thus far, proved elusive; (3) a scientific survey involves a representative sample of the population of interest; (4) GAO's technique extends this approach to select three independent representative samples, each composed of completely different persons; (5) all persons are asked the same potentially sensitive question; (6) all are presented with answer alternatives printed on an 8 1/2 by 11 card, using a design that arranges the answer alternatives in different boxes on the card; (7) this arrangement avoids zeroing in on the sensitive answer category; (8) the logic of the technique involves: (a) a three-box answer format, which is used on each card; (b) three slightly different cards (cards 1, 2, and 3), one for each sample; and (c) indirect estimation of the sensitive category; (9) no respondent is ever directly asked whether he or she is in the sensitive category; (10) each sample provides a different piece of less sensitive information--a different piece of the puzzle; and (11) the outlines of the missing sensitive piece are apparent for the population as a whole when all other pieces are in place.