Responses on computer surveys: Impression management, social desirability, and the big brother syndrome

The quality of responses on computer and paper surveys was examined using 247 Navy recruits randomly assigned to a 2 (anonymous/identified) × 3 (administration modes: paper, computer-nonlinked, computer-linked) design. The computer-linked condition was included to simulate the ‘Big Brother Syndrome’ alluded to but not studied in past research. Higher levels of impression management were found in the identified computer-linked condition. It was concluded that perceiving that one's responses are linked to a larger database may lead to more impression management on computer surveys.