Comparing Questions with Agree/Disagree Response Options to Questions with Item-Specific Response Options
Although Agree/Disagree (A/D) rating scales are hugely popular in the social sciences, a large body of research conducted during more than five decades has documented the bias that results from acquiescence in responses to these items. This may be a reason to prefer questions with Item Specific (IS)...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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European Survey Research Association
2010-05-01
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| Series: | Survey Research Methods |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://ojs.ub.uni-konstanz.de/srm/article/view/2682 |
| _version_ | 1811214906420101120 |
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| author | Willem Saris Melanie Revilla Jon A. Krosnick Eric M. Shaeffer |
| author_facet | Willem Saris Melanie Revilla Jon A. Krosnick Eric M. Shaeffer |
| author_sort | Willem Saris |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Although Agree/Disagree (A/D) rating scales are hugely popular in the social sciences, a large body of research conducted during more than five decades has documented the bias that results from acquiescence in responses to these items. This may be a reason to prefer questions with Item Specific (IS) response options, but remarkably little research has explored whether responses to A/D rating scale questions are indeed of lower quality than responses to questions with IS response options. Using a research design that combines the advantages of a random assignment between-subjects experiment and the multitrait-multimethod approach in the context of representative sample surveys, we found that responses to A/D rating scale questions indeed had much lower quality than responses to comparable questions offering IS response options. These results attest to the superiority of questions with IS response options. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-12T06:12:16Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-f5bb79fd00fa48be81144f7e56f424b1 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1864-3361 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-12T06:12:16Z |
| publishDate | 2010-05-01 |
| publisher | European Survey Research Association |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Survey Research Methods |
| spelling | doaj.art-f5bb79fd00fa48be81144f7e56f424b12022-12-22T03:44:40ZengEuropean Survey Research AssociationSurvey Research Methods1864-33612010-05-014110.18148/srm/2010.v4i1.26824133Comparing Questions with Agree/Disagree Response Options to Questions with Item-Specific Response OptionsWillem Saris0Melanie Revilla1Jon A. Krosnick2Eric M. Shaeffer3ESADE, Ramon Llull UniversityESADE, Ramon Llull UniversityStanford UniversityOhio State UniversityAlthough Agree/Disagree (A/D) rating scales are hugely popular in the social sciences, a large body of research conducted during more than five decades has documented the bias that results from acquiescence in responses to these items. This may be a reason to prefer questions with Item Specific (IS) response options, but remarkably little research has explored whether responses to A/D rating scale questions are indeed of lower quality than responses to questions with IS response options. Using a research design that combines the advantages of a random assignment between-subjects experiment and the multitrait-multimethod approach in the context of representative sample surveys, we found that responses to A/D rating scale questions indeed had much lower quality than responses to comparable questions offering IS response options. These results attest to the superiority of questions with IS response options.https://ojs.ub.uni-konstanz.de/srm/article/view/2682Quality of Agree/disagree scalesitem specific scalesSplit ballot MTMM |
| spellingShingle | Willem Saris Melanie Revilla Jon A. Krosnick Eric M. Shaeffer Comparing Questions with Agree/Disagree Response Options to Questions with Item-Specific Response Options Survey Research Methods Quality of Agree/disagree scales item specific scales Split ballot MTMM |
| title | Comparing Questions with Agree/Disagree Response Options to Questions with Item-Specific Response Options |
| title_full | Comparing Questions with Agree/Disagree Response Options to Questions with Item-Specific Response Options |
| title_fullStr | Comparing Questions with Agree/Disagree Response Options to Questions with Item-Specific Response Options |
| title_full_unstemmed | Comparing Questions with Agree/Disagree Response Options to Questions with Item-Specific Response Options |
| title_short | Comparing Questions with Agree/Disagree Response Options to Questions with Item-Specific Response Options |
| title_sort | comparing questions with agree disagree response options to questions with item specific response options |
| topic | Quality of Agree/disagree scales item specific scales Split ballot MTMM |
| url | https://ojs.ub.uni-konstanz.de/srm/article/view/2682 |
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