It was determined that any criminal activities perpetrated by the respondents in a survey would, for obvious reasons, not be included. it was also believed that forgetfulness, embarrassment and/or fear might be problematic. what type of error would this constitute?

The error that the elimination of the mentioned elements from the study would constitute would be that of under-reporting.

Explanation:

Ignoring certain happenings that are of prime importance only for the sake of complying with certain norms would clearly exhibit the error of under-reporting. The occurrences of significance will have to be left out without even taking into consideration their impact on the other events that happen or the ones that cease to happen. Such under-reporting is often deemed to be non-beneficial as far as media business is concerned.