10 points versus 11 points? Effects of Left-right Scale Design in a Cross-national Perspective

• Authors: Cornelia Zuell , Evi Scholz
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

Left-right self-placement on a unidimensional scale is a standard question in many social and political surveys to measure respondents’ ideological orientation in a minimalist way. Although the left-right scale is a standard question, the scale design is not standardized across surveys. One aspect of scale design is the offer of a midpoint. This paper is about design effects on central left-right scale placement in a cross-national context. How do respondents answer if there is no true midpoint: Do respondents who want to express a middle position, in the case of a 10-point scale, use scale middle categories as a substitute for a true midpoint? Are findings consistent across countries? Offering a midpoint is much debated among researchers and quite often, a midpoint might serve as a hidden “don’t know” or a missing attitude. Does nonresponse increase when non-attitudes cannot be expressed by choosing the neutral midpoint to hide nonresponse? If middle categories in the 10-point scale work as substitute for a true midpoint in the 11-point scale, nonresponse will not differ. We tested these questions in a split-half experiment where either a 10-point or an 11-point scale was asked in an experimental web survey fielded in six countries. Our results seem to confirm the idea that respondents who favor choosing a scale middle find a virtual center in the 10-point scale. However, results are inconsistent in cross-national perspective.

Keywords

EN

cross-cultural comparison; scale midpoint; left-right self-placement; open-ended questions; response behavior

• Publisher: Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, Polish Academy of Sciences
• Journal: ASK. Research and Methods
• Year: 2016
• Volume: 25
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 3-16

Contributors

author

Cornelia Zuell

• GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences

author

Evi Scholz

• GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences

References

• Bauer, Paul C., Pablo Barbera, Kathrin Ackermann and Aaron Venetz. 2014. “Vague Concepts in Survey Questions: A General Problem Illustrated with the Left-Right Scale.” SSRN eLibrary. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2467595.
• Bobio, Norberto. 1996. Left and Right. The Significance of a Political Distinction. Cambridge: Polity Press.
• Federico, Christopher M. 2009. “How People Organize Their Political Attitudes: The Roles of Ideology, Expertise, and Evaluative Motivation.” American Psychological Association, Psychological Science Agenda 23(9).
• Finlay, David J., Douglas W. Simon and L. A. Wilson II. 1974. “The Concept of Left and Right in Cross-National Research.” Comparative Political Studies 7(2): 209–21. doi: 10.1177/001041407400700204.
• Garland, Ron. 1991. “The Mid-Point on a Rating Scale: Is it Desirable?”. Marketing Bulletin 2(1): 66–70.
• Inglehart, Ronald and Hans-Dieter Klingemann. 1976. “Party Identifi cation, Ideological Preference and the Left-Right Dimension among Western Mass Publics.” Pp. 243– 73 in Party Identification and Beyond, edited by Ian Budge, Ivor Crewe and Denise Farlie. Essex: John Wiley & Sons.
• Kroh, Martin. 2007. “Measuring Left-Right Political Orientation: The Choice of Response Format.” Public Opinion Quarterly 71(2): 204–20. doi: 10.1093/poq/ nfm009.
• O’Muircheartaigh, Colm, Jon A. Krosnick and Armin Helic. 2000. “Middle Alternatives, Acquiescence, and the Quality of Questionnaire Data.” Working Papers. 01/2000. Chicago: University of Chicago.
• Potter, Corrie. 2001. “Left-Right Self-Placement in Western Europe: What Responses and Non-Responses Indicate.” Pp. 1–18. U.W. Madison: Paper presented for the Political Behaviour Group.
• Rodon, Toni. 2014. “Do All Roads Lead to the Centre? The Unresolved Dilemma of Centrist Self-Placement.” International Journal of Public Opinion Research. doi: 10.1093/ipor/edu028.
• Smith, Tom W. 2003. “Developing Comparable Questions in Cross-National Surveys.” Pp. 69–91 in Cross-Cultural Survey Methods, edited by Janet. A. Harkness, Fons J. R. Van de Vijver and Peter Ph. Mohler. Hoboken: Wiley.
• Tourangeau, Roger, Lance J. Rips and Kenneth Rasinski. 2000. The Psychology of Survey Response. Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press.
• Weber, Wiebke. 2011. “Testing for Measurment Equivalence of Individuals’ Left-Right Orientation.” Survey Research Methods 5(1): 1–10. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.18148/ srm/2011.v5i1.4622.
• Weijters, Bert, Elke Cabooter and Niels Schillewaert. 2010. “The Effect of Rating Scale Format on Response Styles: The Number of Response Categories and Response Category Labels.” Vol. 2010/636. Ghent: University Ghent.
• Worcester, Robert. M. and Timothy. R. Burns. 1975. “A Statistical Examination of the Relative Precision of Verbal Scales.” Journal of the Market Research Society 17(3): 181–97.
• Yang, Yongwei, Janet A. Harkness, Tzu-Yun Chin and Ana Villar. 2010. “Response Style and Culture.” Pp. 203–23 in Survey Methods in Multinational, Multiregional, and Multicultural Contexts, edited by Janet A. Harkness, Michael Braun, Brad Edwards, Timothy P. Johnson, Lars Lyberg, Peter. Ph. Mohler, B.-E. Pennell and T. W. Smith. Hoboken: Wiley.
• Zuell, Cornelia and Evi Scholz. 2012. “ Assoziationen mit den politischen Richtungsbegriffen „Links“ und „Rechts“ im internationalen Vergleich: Kategorienschema für die Codierung offener Angaben.” Vol. 2012/03. GESIS-Technical Report. Köln: GESIS.