The Accuracy of Self

Government agencies rely on surveys in which individuals self-report their smoking activities, which raises questions about biases in responses. To validate self-reported smoking numbers, medical researchers often rely on urinary concentrations of cotinine, the main metabolite of nicotine. But virtually all existing studies investigate whether self-reported nonsmokers misreport their smoking status. Such investigations leave unanswered whether individuals who admit smoking nonetheless smoke more than they claim. This article produces two findings of interest, both pertaining to self-reported smoking among Blacks. First, among self-reported nonsmokers, a Black person is approximately 47% more likely to smoke compared with a non-Black person. Second, among individuals who admit to smoking, the average Black smoker underreports his smoking activity by a larger amount than 70% of all self-reported smokers. Slower metabolism of cotinine among Blacks explains some, but not all, of those numbers