Application of the Randomized Response Technique.

The Randominzed Response Technique was used with 83 undergraduate students in an Introductory Statistics course to: (1) demonstrate a means by which information of a sensitive nature can be obtained in a confidential manner; and (2) illustrate to a group of somewhat skeptical students an application of statistics to an interesting, real-world problem. The technique requires that each participating student respond to one of two questions, without revealing the one to which he/she is responding. The first question is neutral (e.g., Is the last digit of your student ID odd?); the other sensitive (i.g., Have you masturbated within the past two weeks?). The student is asked to choose a two-digit number (00-99) from a table of random numbers. Then, all students with numbers 00-69 are told to answer the sensitive question, and all with 70 or above answer the neutral question. Thus, only the student knows the question to which she/he is responding. The procedure provides an interesting demonstration of the utility of a statistical procedure applied to a practical, health science problem. (Author/DEP)