@article {633410,
	title = {Sensitive Questions, Spillover Effects, and Asking About Citizenship on the U.S. Census},
	journal = {Journal of Politics},
	volume = {84},
	number = {3},
	year = {2022},
	month = {July 2022},
	pages = {1869-1873},
	abstract = {
	\&nbsp;



	Many topics social scientists study are sensitive in nature. Although we know directly asking



	about these issues can lead to nonresponse, we know very little about how such questions could\&nbsp;potentially influence responses to questions later in the survey. In this study, we use the Trump\&nbsp;administration{\textquoteright}s proposal to include a citizenship question on the 2020 Census to demonstrate\&nbsp;how such spillover effects can undermine important survey-based estimates, like the number\&nbsp;of Hispanics in the United States. Using a large survey experiment (n = 9,035 respondents),\&nbsp;we find that asking about citizenship status significantly increases the percent of questions\&nbsp;skipped and makes respondents less likely to report having members of their household wh \&nbsp;are of Hispanic ethnicity. Not only does this demonstrate how sensitive questions can have\&nbsp;important downstream effects, but our results also speak to an important public policy debate\&nbsp;which will likely arise again in the future.



	\&nbsp;

},
	url = {https://doi.org/10.1086/716288},
	author = {Baum, Matthew A. and Bryce Jensen Dietrich and Rebecca Goldstein and Maya Sen}
}
