Confirmation Bias in Housing Unit Listing

Abstract

Using an experimental repeated listing design, this article demonstrates the presence of confirmation bias in dependent housing unit listing. We find evidence that when provided with an initial listing to update in the field, listers tend not to add missing units or delete inappropriate units. The listers are biased toward confirming the initial list as correct. This finding has implications not only for surveys that use dependent listing to create housing-unit frames, but also for studies of coverage of housing-unit frames.

Publication
Public Opinion Quarterly