Korea-Illinois Research Project How does anonymity affect people's behavior? Kaila Kim Je Yeon Han Hannah Griffin 4 April 2011

Big Picture Q How does anonymity affect people's behavior? Specific Q How do face-to-face responses to different types of survey questions differ from anonymous responses?

Eastland Mall, Bloomington Coex, Seoul

PROCEDURE

F/M Do you like cake? Have you ever traveled outside of the country? Have you ever stole something? Have you ever helped a homeless? To 40 people (20 men, 20 women) who are in their 20s

Hypothesis People are more likely to lie when their anonymity is kept. (People have a greater chance of lying over the internet or on the survey sheet rather than face to face) Responses that might hurt the image of participants are likely to appear in the anonymous survey, not in the face-to-face survey. For example, for the question ‘have you ever stolen something?’ people are likely going to answer no in face-to- face survey even though they did, for the sake of their image. They are likely to answer honestly in the anonymous survey or even still lie if they don't want people to know.

Korea- Number of Yes

Illinois- Number of Yes

Analysis Hypothesis was almost proven “Do you like cake/Have you ever traveled oversea” neutral question wouldn’t hurt people’s images “Have you ever stolen something” Answered no face to face but wrote yes on paper For the sake of their image “Have you ever helped a homeless people” Answered yes face to face but wrote no on paper (Korea) Wanted to look good to other Answered no face to face but wrote yes on paper (Illinois) Too shy, too embarrassing, etc

Interesting thing In Korea, many women lied less than men yesnochange yesnochange FEMALEMALE

Possible Flaws Ways in which we approached the people and asking them to take a survey and asking questions could be intimidating or awkward Different size of the community Different group size Some people didn’t take the experiment seriously People not sure whether it was truly confidential