Surveys are now a common, though largely unacknowledged, counterinsurgency tool of the contemporary battlefield. …
Certain problems associated with administering surveys in war zones are well known and largely unavoidable. Analysts at the RAND Corporation, for instance, have observed that conflict can prevent enumerators from accessing the most dangerous – and often the most crucial – areas of a country. Access to potential respondents may also be impeded by local leaders and other community gatekeepers.
Yet a far more nefarious problem arises when respondents simply provide inaccurate responses. Social science research shows that asking respondents directly about topics they consider sensitive tends to lead respondents to either provide false answers or refuse to respond. CONT.
Andrew Shaver & Yang-Yang Zhou (Princeton), The Monkey Cage