Höhne Jan Karem, Krebs Dagmar, Kühnel Steffen-M
Collaborative Research Center SFB 884 "Political Economy of Reforms", University of Mannheim, B6 30-32, 68131 Mannheim, Germany; Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Research and Expertise Centre for Survey Methodology, Mercè Rodoreda 24.406, Ramón Trías Fargas, 25-27, 08005 Barcelona, Spain.
University of Giessen, Institute of Sociology, Karl-Glöckner-Straße 21E, 35394 Gießen, Germany.
Soc Sci Res. 2021 Jul;97:102544. doi: 10.1016/j.ssresearch.2021.102544. Epub 2021 Mar 2.
The measurement of respondents' attitudes is key in social science research and many adjacent research fields. A common method to measure this information is to use Likert-type questions that consist of a statement that is evaluated with a rating scale. As shown by previous research, the scale design of Likert-type questions can have a profound impact on respondents' answer behavior. In this study, we therefore investigate the measurement properties of scales that systematically vary with respect to polarity (i.e., unipolar and bipolar) and labeling (i.e., completely and end). We conducted a survey experiment in a probability-based online panel (N = 4851) and used questions on income (in)equality that were adopted from the European Social Survey (ESS). The results reveal considerable differences between the scales under investigation. They show that end labeled unipolar and bipolar scales accomplish the criteria of equidistance best. Completely labeled bipolar scales, in contrast, only show a poor performance in terms of equidistance. Completely labeled unipolar scales are somewhere in between. Overall, our findings suggest that researchers should be careful when using survey data measured with (slightly) different scales because the results might not be comparable.
在社会科学研究以及许多相邻研究领域中，测量受访者的态度是关键所在。测量此类信息的常用方法是使用李克特式问题，即由一个通过评级量表进行评估的陈述组成的问题。正如先前研究所表明的那样，李克特式问题的量表设计会对受访者的回答行为产生深远影响。因此，在本研究中，我们调查了在极性（即单极和双极）和标签（即完全式和端点式）方面系统变化的量表的测量属性。我们在一个基于概率的在线样本组（N = 4851）中进行了一项调查实验，并使用了从欧洲社会调查（ESS）中采用的关于收入（不）平等的问题。结果显示，所调查的量表之间存在显著差异。结果表明，端点式标签的单极和双极量表在等距性标准方面表现最佳。相比之下，完全式标签的双极量表在等距性方面仅表现不佳。完全式标签的单极量表则介于两者之间。总体而言，我们的研究结果表明，研究人员在使用以（略有）不同量表测量的调查数据时应谨慎，因为结果可能无法进行比较。
