Attitude Profiles of Anonymous Responders

Findings for self-reported measures provided by anonymous subjects differed from those provided by subjects who voluntarily identified themselves while responding to a survey. A study was conducted to develop some distinctive attitude profiles for each of these two types of respondents. The sample consisted of a total of 101 employees in two large Israeli corporations who were asked to provide their names at the end of a long questionnaire they completed about attitudes and behavior related to work. A multivariate analysis of variance showed that the identifiable subjects differed from the anonymous subjects on two factors related to moral commitment, but not on calculative commitment. An alternative explanation for the findings is examined, and some of the unique aspects of the study are discussed.