Interviewer Gender Effect on Acquiescent Response Style in 11 Asian Countries and Societies

Abstract

Although there is a large body of literature on interviewer gender effect, there are still two areas that merit further research. First, very limited attention has been paid to non-Western settings. Second, previous research has focused on responses to a limited number of survey questions and ignored other broader response behaviors. In this study, we use the Asian Barometer Study data to examine the gender effect on acquiescent response style for 53 agree/disagree questions asked in 11 Asian countries and societies. In general, we find that in six countries/societies, male interviewers elicited more acquiescent responses than female interviewers. We also discover that the interviewer gender effect is similar for male and female interviewees.