"Red Herring" is not used here in it's usual meaning "s.t. irrelevant that is only distracting from the real issue":

A red herring is something that misleads or distracts from a relevant or important issue. It may be either a logical fallacy or a literary device that leads readers or audiences towards a false conclusion. A red herring might be intentionally used, such as in mystery fiction or as part of rhetorical strategies (e.g. in politics), or it could be inadvertently used during argumentation.

Logical fallacy
As an informal fallacy, the red herring falls into a broad class of relevance fallacies. Unlike the straw man, which is premised on a distortion of the other party's position, the red herring is a seemingly plausible, though ultimately irrelevant, diversionary tactic. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a red herring may be intentional, or unintentional; it does not necessarily mean a conscious intent to mislead.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_herring

but more in the sense "questions used to check if you are not cheating/doing a botched job of filling the questionnaire"

Improve Your Research Quality With Red Herring Questions
Do you ever wonder how great research comes together? In today’s 24/7 world of online sample, respondent engagement and perceived quality are critical metrics of success for all clients. How do you determine “bad” respondents? And more importantly, how do you ensure all respondents are engaged and providing the most accurate responses? Enter: red herrings.

Posted by: Lucid
By: Laura Manning, Senior Project Manager – Proof

Do you ever wonder how great research comes together? Without quality sample, decisions made all around us by Fortune 500 companies, financial institutions, universities, and more could be bad decisions. High-quality sample allows businesses to make the best decisions possible for their customers, their investors, and their bottom line.

But how do you ensure your market research projects or data collection efforts do not suffer from poor respondent quality? In today’s 24/7 world of online sample, respondent engagement and perceived quality are critical metrics of success for all clients. How do you determine “bad” respondents? And more importantly, how do you ensure all respondents are engaged and providing the most accurate responses? Enter: red herrings.

When most people think “herrings” they think of fish, but for researchers, red herrings are a type of question used to ensure quality on studies. These questions are designed to ‘trap’ users who are either not paying attention, speeding, or do not fit the target profile for the project at hand.

Research has shown that when conspicuous trap questions are added to the start of surveys, respondents are more likely to spend more time thoughtfully answering questions; they are less likely to straightline; and they are less likely to miss subsequent trap questions. By adding in obvious trap questions at the start of your survey, you can influence and improve respondent behavior throughout your project. Using red herring questions can also prevent respondents from “satisficing” or choosing an answer even though none of the choices are optimal.
https://luc.id/2016/08/01/improve-your-research-quality-with...

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Note added at 12 hrs (2017-09-16 06:16:44 GMT)
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.. in its usual meaning