Social desirability bias

Also known as social response bias, the skew that is present in a study when participants feel compelled to respond in socially desirable ways, in order to make the researcher (or arts organization or funder) feel good about the evaluation or subject of the study. For example, a person being interviewed by a volunteer at a voter registration drive might feel more compelled to say that s/he intends to vote in the next local election than s/he otherwise would.