Preventing satisficing: A narrative review

ABSTRACT

Social scientists have long agreed that satisficing behavior increases error and reduces the validity of survey data. There have been numerous reviews on detecting satisficing behavior, but preventing this behavior has received less attention. The current narrative review provides empirically supported guidance on preventing satisficing by combining insight from related research streams (e.g. careless responding, random responding, insufficient effort responding, inattentive responding, straightlining, speeding). By uniting what is known about this broad range of problematic responding, a suite of preventive techniques can be highlighted, thus maximizing the utility of these literatures for researchers and practitioners. To optimize the contributions of this review, we complement the benefits of suggested preventive approaches with the potential drawbacks of taking the proposed steps.

KEYWORDS:

• Satisficing prevention
• narrative review
• straightlining
• insufficient effort responding
• random responding

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/13645579.2023.2239086

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Danielle R. Blazek

Danielle R. Blazek is a recent doctoral graduate from Claremont Graduate University (CGU). Her research focuses on the application of social psychological theory to methods of increasing organ donation registrations. Additionally, Dr. Blazek is interested in ways to increase the data quality from online survey collections. Dr. Blazek was awarded the CGU 2022-2023 Dissertation Award.

Jason T. Siegel

Jason T. Siegel is a professor of psychology at Claremont Graduate University (CGU). In addition to his scholarship on survey research methods and research design, his research focuses on applying social psychological theory with the goal of changing health behavior (e.g., help-seeking for depression, mental health stigma, organ donor registration, and substance abuse). Dr. Siegel has provided survey and research methods consultation and workshops for organizations such as NBC/Universal, the Centers for Disease Control, the Department of Labor, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and HCA Healthcare. Dr. Siegel’s work has won awards such as the Western Psychological Association’s (WPA) Early Career Award, WPA’s Social Responsibility Award, and CGU’s Presidential Research Award (Inaugural winner), recognizing outstanding contributions to new knowledge by faculty.