Let’s Talk About Sex: A Systematic Review of Sex-of-Interviewer Effects on the Survey Response

Abstract

This article presents a qualitative systematic review of sex-of-interviewer effects on survey responses on different topics. Overall, we identified 90 scientific studies including 100 datasets between 1962 and 2022. We find that sex-of-interviewer effects are present but also that the topical scope matters. Unsurprisingly, sensitive questions relating to topics such as gender, health, or sexuality, are more susceptible to sex-of-interviewer effects compared to factual items such as demographic questions. We conclude that interviewer sex deserves further attention in scientific studies, as interviewers may affect the survey estimate. We also note that survey reporting on methodological specifications needs to be more transparent to allow evaluating the quality of the survey data collection. Our findings have implications for researchers working with interviewer-administered survey data, as they should consider that interviewer sex can influence survey estimates and, as a result, may wish to control for potential effects.