Question

When asked if they attend church services nearly every week or more, about 35 percent of Americans say they do. But when daily diaries of people's activities are examined, rates of church attendance are much lower. This problem of self-reporting positive behaviors is known within sociology as:____________

Answer 1

Answer:

Social desirability bias

Explanation:

In sociology, the term social desirability bias refers to the tendency of answering questions in a way that will be favorably for them. This type of bias specially takes place when people are being surveyed.

In this example, people in a survey get asked when they attend church and approximately 35 percent of Americans say they go every week or more. But when daily diaries of people's activities are examined, the rates are much lower.

Therefore, they are reporting a different behavior when being surveyed than in real life, because people answers the questions in a way that will be favorable for them. Thus, this is an example of social-desirability bias.

Answer 2

Answer:

Social desirability bias

Explanation:

Social desirability bias occurs in social research studies when the respondents in the research responds to the survey questions while basing the answers as favorable or desirable rather than being accurate. This leads to over reporting of certain factors that might make the respondent look good and under reporting of other factors that might make the respondent look bad. Here, attending church services has been inquired and over reporting it might make the respondent believe that they are good people. Therefore, social desirability bias is observed here and this is well known in sociology as a problem of self-reporting positive behaviors.