Substance Abuse

Evaluating Honesty

Having read the article "Survey Confidentiality vs. Anonymity: Young Men's Self Reported Substance Use", I feel as if I know a little bit more about the way in which people display honesty in general. This experimental study was seeking to find out if the way in which people answered surveys as anonymous or by name mattered in their honesty of their answers. Therefore, the study's hypothesis was saying that identifying oneself will change his or her level of honesty on a survey. Interestingly, the authors found that it does not really matter if a person identifies themselves or not. It is more important though that the person trusts the confidentiality of the survey. The authors found that identification or lack of identification does not really make a difference in how a person responds. Therefore, the findings did not support the hypothesis that a person would be likely to change his or her answers due to identification.

The authors used men in the military as their subjects in the experiment. This could create a problem though because it does state that the military has a very strict policy on tobacco, alcohol, and drug use. This circumstance could challenge the validity of the experiment easily. The men may be too afraid to be truly honest on either survey. I think that this is the one key flaw of the experiment. It would be better if the people were not in such a binding situation. Hopefully, another study will pick a more neutral group of people without such intense pressures.

The authors interpreted their findings in a conclusion and with tables. They concluded that there was no substantial difference in numbers when comparing the percent who admitted to alcohol, tobacco, or drug abuse who displayed their identification verses those who were anonymous. I definitely agree with this interpretation. If the percentage of those who admitted to substance use while being anonymous was the same as the percentage of those who admitted it while displaying identification, then I conclude the same.

There is one thing that I found confusing in the article. The lists of facts in the discussion area were a little complex. I could not exactly place how some of the numbers corresponded with what the authors were trying to prove. Slowly, I began to understand what each number meant to the overall study. By the end though, it all came together