Evade and Deceive? Citizen Responses to Surveillance

The study uses an online survey experiment in Japan to examine citizen responses to government surveillance. It finds that while respondents did not engage in preference falsification or self-censorship, they were significantly more likely to opt-out of the survey entirely when reminded of the government's capacity for monitoring, even at a monetary cost.

• The authors conceptualize a 'deception-evasion spectrum' consisting of three distinct behavioral responses to surveillance: preference falsification (stating outright mistruths), self-censorship (avoiding stating an opinion), and opting-out (exiting the situation entirely to avoid both opinion solicitation and further monitoring).
• The empirical results show no evidence that reminders of government or company surveillance lead to preference falsification, as respondents did not change their expressed opinions on controversial topics.
• The study found no evidence that government or company surveillance increased the tendency of respondents to self-censor by selecting a 'no opinion' response option.
• Reminders of government surveillance significantly increased the probability of respondents opting-out of the survey, with the treatment group being approximately 8 percentage points more likely to attrit than the baseline group.
• The tendency to opt-out occurred even when it resulted in a monetary cost, as respondents had to forfeit payment for completing the survey.
• The opting-out response appears specific to government surveillance, as the 'company surveillance' treatment did not cause respondents to exit the survey at a higher rate than the baseline.
• The findings indicate that evasive behaviors like opting-out occur even in consolidated democracies where freedom of speech and opinion are legally codified, suggesting that intellectual privacy is valued over the opportunity for political expression.

APA

Eck, K., Hatz, S., Crabtree, C., & Tago, A. (2021). Evade and Deceive? Citizen Responses to Surveillance. Peace Research Institute Oslo. https://cdn.cloud.prio.org/files/4fa76e50-1d09-4c7e-9aaf-67efa79834af/Evade and Deceive Citizen Responses to Online Surveillance.pdf?inline=true

Chicago

Eck, Kristine, Sophia Hatz, Charles Crabtree, and Atsushi Tago. Evade and Deceive? Citizen Responses to Surveillance. Peace Research Institute Oslo, 2021. https://cdn.cloud.prio.org/files/4fa76e50-1d09-4c7e-9aaf-67efa79834af/Evade and Deceive Citizen Responses to Online Surveillance.pdf?inline=true.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Eck |first1=Kristine |last2=Hatz |first2=Sophia |last3=Crabtree |first3=Charles |last4=Tago |first4=Atsushi |title=Evade and Deceive? Citizen Responses to Surveillance |publisher=Peace Research Institute Oslo |date=7 January 2021 |url=https://cdn.cloud.prio.org/files/4fa76e50-1d09-4c7e-9aaf-67efa79834af/Evade and Deceive Citizen Responses to Online Surveillance.pdf?inline=true |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{eck2021evade, author = {Eck, Kristine and Hatz, Sophia and Crabtree, Charles and Tago, Atsushi}, title = {{Evade and Deceive? Citizen Responses to Surveillance}}, institution = {Peace Research Institute Oslo}, year = {2021}, month = jan, url = {https://cdn.cloud.prio.org/files/4fa76e50-1d09-4c7e-9aaf-67efa79834af/Evade and Deceive Citizen Responses to Online Surveillance.pdf?inline=true}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }