Abstract
In applied social research the mail questionnaire is often the only practicable, and mostly the least expensive, method of collecting data. The intrinsic qualities of a questionnaire apart, the utility of such data depends on the rate of returns (i.e., representativeness of the sample) and the frankness of respondents (i.e., validity of responses). It appears that there is a belief among research workers that a major factor affecting these two parameters is the anonymity of a questionnaire (Goode and Hatt, 1952; Maccoby and Maccoby, 1954).