Committee members (CMs) from Boane may be influenced by this proximity and may not give responses typical of rural Mozambique.
Secondly, due to the nature of focus group discussions there is a potential for bias as participants can sometimes feel peer pressure to provide a socially acceptable response, or may give similar responses.
Individuals find it difficult to reveal accurately how they value health improvement in monetary terms [5], and, those with more money may give different responses, skewing the allocation of resources toward the wealthy [6].
Therefore, patients with PSS may give positive responses to these questions regardless of the underlying aetiology of their sicca symptoms.
Therefore, patients with PSS may give positive responses to two of the 10 questions in the secretomotor domain of the COMPASS questionnaire regardless of the underlying aetiology of their symptoms, leading to potential overestimation of the severity of autonomic dysfunction in PSS.
Similarly, we do not know how doctors who indicated that they would not be willing to give honest answers would actually respond to questionnaires about end-of-life practices: on the one hand, they may give dishonest responses (ie, report not having practised illegally when in fact they have); on the other hand, it is equally possible that they may not answer the questions at all.
Their responses may also be influenced by social acceptability bias, that is, physicians may have felt obligated to give responses that are expected of them.
For example, many respondents may give a response instead of saying that they don't know or have no opinion (Converse, 1964).
The consequence of weak attitudes and a lack of information is that respondents may give a response to a question, but not one that is based on previously held opinions or information.
These students may also be less confident to give responses that break with social expectations (for example, leaving Malawi), given their younger age and recent university entry.
