The Sincerity of Questioned People

Applying questionnaires is one of the basic methodologies in sociology. Usually sociologists consider that choosing a representative sample and properly formulated questions, the results will show real characteristics of the society. But the following main question should always be analyzed: are people sincere? Psychology proved that we try to meet the society's expectation. In this way the answers do not represent the questioned person’s thought, but what they considered expect from society. The present study analyzes the sincerity of police officers, asked to complete a questionnaire for a scientific purpose, respecting the principle of anonymity. The results show that around 2/3 of the questioned persons did not give sincere answers, offering importance for an inexistent person (Schnade). By analyzing the answers to another question (the importance of the television and the bicycle for the questioned persons), it was found that insincere people could be not easily excluded: the sincerity is changing from question to question; some persons are sincere regarding a specific domain and not sincere in another domain.