Surveys

How much surveys correspond to the truth?
Whenever we look at newspapers, especially online ones, there is always a title revealing that a certain percentage of people do this and that, and obviously every data is different from the other. On the other hand, the question made is crucial.

If the question is "How many carrots you eat during the week?" it is unlikely that most of the people would lie unless they work for the potato industry and want to boycott the data.

But if the question is: "are you a serial killer" there is a higher chance that the people interviewed would be thoroughly truthful. Some would say yes even if they are not and, believe it or not, some serial killers wouldn't admit it despite being anonymous.

One of the typical survey is over fidelity and although this is where most people would lie about. Nevertheless according to the New York Times the landscape of fidelity has been changing and the main change in data has been noticed for old couples (due to sex enhancing medicines they say) and in couples under 35 (probably due to a changed perception of normal behavior).

Is this true? You can read the entire article here