ICT skills measurement in social surveys: Can we trust self-reports?

Abstract

Self-reports are the most common way of measuring information and communications technology (ICT) skills in social surveys. Studies comparing self-reported computer skills with objective assessments have found evidence of significant overreporting of skills, but were conducted only among non-representative groups of individuals. This paper fills an important gap by analysing the degree to which ICT skills are overreported in the workingage population of Poland, and the potential causes of this behaviour. We compare answers to Eurostat questions on ICT usage with direct assessments of the corresponding tasks. The results suggest that those individuals who are most likely to possess ICT skills are also most likely to overreport having these skills. The propensity to overreport decreases with age and increases with years of education and numeracy level; women are less likely than men to overestimate their skills. The positive relationship between the probability of a group to overreport their own skills and their expected levels of skills suggests that social desirability bias may explain this phenomenon.

Attitudes towards Participation in a Passive Data Collection Experiment

“…This development took another leap when smartphone applications emerged along with cloud-based services and smartphones suddenly became a viable platform for collecting survey data [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 ]. Although self-reported surveys generally suffer from bias for a variety of reasons [ 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 ], conducting surveys with smartphones is a very cost-effective method of data collection that also opens up opportunities to collect other non-survey types of data. Such data includes location information, application usage, media consumption etc.…”

The perception of ICT skills and challenges of usage of technologies among the library professionals of the Gujarat State during the COVID 19: a comprehensive study

“…This study investigated the ICT skills of LIS professionals, usage, and challenges related to the application of ICT and the role of ICT to serve the user community. Palczyńska & Rynko (2020) observed ICT skills measurement in the social surveys by using logistic regression models. The study described "those individuals who are most likely to possess ICT skills are most likely to over report having these skills.…”

“…Palczyńska & Rynko ( 2020 ) observed ICT skills measurement in the social surveys by using logistic regression models. The study described “those individuals who are most likely to possess ICT skills are most likely to over report having these skills.…”

Vorsprung durch Technik? Zur Rolle von Technikbereitschaft und Technikausstattung für das Studieren von zuhause

“…Jungen und Mädchen in ihren technikbezogenen Selbstbewertungen unterscheiden können, wobei Männer und Jungen dazu neigen, sich zu überschätzen (Hatlevik et al. 2018 ; Ihme und Senkbeil 2017 ; Palczyńska und Rynko 2020 ). Trotz höherer technikbezogener Selbstwirksamkeitserwartungen von Männern und Jungen (Hedges g = 0,23 in Borokhovski et al.…”