Authors

Volodymyr Paniotto¹;  ¹ Kiev International Institute of Sociology, Ukraine

Discussion

The two main questions are:

 -   Can we call our data representative?

 And can we trust the responses of the respondents we survey (the issue of sincerity in responses)? 

  Representativeness. Due to the war, there were challenges in surveying the following population categories: 1) Refugees who left Ukraine, 2) Internally displaced persons, 3) Population of the occupied territories, and 4) Population in the active combat zone. To assess representativeness, it is necessary to evaluate the accessibility of each of these groups. 

Sincerity. The two factors that most influence the sincerity of respondents are administrative pressure (fear of persecution for expressed opinions) and the so-called "spiral of silence" described by Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann.
We will consider the following methods for sincerity assessment:

Comparing responses to a specific question with a question that highlights the option to refrain from answering.
Possibility of a decent escape from an unpleasant answer.
Evaluation of changes in the respondent's profile.
List method - comparing two sub-samples with a sensitive question and without it.
Panel survey – comparing pre-war responses of respondents in two surveys - before the war and during the war.
The "thought-of acquaintance" method.
Methods for face-to-face (F2F) surveys (randomized response and secret ballot).