Abstract
Considerable research has examined the effect of response option order in ordinal bipolar questions such as satisfaction questions. However, no research we know of has examined the effect of the order of presentation of concepts in the question stem or whether stem order moderates response option order. In this article, we experimentally test the main and interaction effects of both stem and response option order for items in self-administered surveys on response distributions and answer changes in eight satisfied/dissatisfied questions. We find consistent evidence that response option order impacts answers. We also find that the order of “satisfied” or “dissatisfied” in the question stem impacts response distributions for four of our eight items but does not moderate the effect of response option order. We discuss the implications of our findings for questionnaire design and secondary data analyses.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 260-276 |
| Number of pages | 17 |
| Journal | Field Methods |
| Volume | 31 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Aug 1 2019 |
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ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Anthropology
Cite this
Effects of Stem and Response Order on Response Patterns in Satisfaction Ratings. / Smyth, Jolene D; Israel, Glenn D.; Newberry, Milton G.; Hull, Richard G.
In: Field Methods, Vol. 31, No. 3, 01.08.2019, p. 260-276.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Effects of Stem and Response Order on Response Patterns in Satisfaction Ratings
AU - Smyth, Jolene D
AU - Israel, Glenn D.
AU - Newberry, Milton G.
AU - Hull, Richard G.
PY - 2019/8/1
Y1 - 2019/8/1
N2 - Considerable research has examined the effect of response option order in ordinal bipolar questions such as satisfaction questions. However, no research we know of has examined the effect of the order of presentation of concepts in the question stem or whether stem order moderates response option order. In this article, we experimentally test the main and interaction effects of both stem and response option order for items in self-administered surveys on response distributions and answer changes in eight satisfied/dissatisfied questions. We find consistent evidence that response option order impacts answers. We also find that the order of “satisfied” or “dissatisfied” in the question stem impacts response distributions for four of our eight items but does not moderate the effect of response option order. We discuss the implications of our findings for questionnaire design and secondary data analyses.
AB - Considerable research has examined the effect of response option order in ordinal bipolar questions such as satisfaction questions. However, no research we know of has examined the effect of the order of presentation of concepts in the question stem or whether stem order moderates response option order. In this article, we experimentally test the main and interaction effects of both stem and response option order for items in self-administered surveys on response distributions and answer changes in eight satisfied/dissatisfied questions. We find consistent evidence that response option order impacts answers. We also find that the order of “satisfied” or “dissatisfied” in the question stem impacts response distributions for four of our eight items but does not moderate the effect of response option order. We discuss the implications of our findings for questionnaire design and secondary data analyses.
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UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85068613622&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/1525822X19860648
DO - 10.1177/1525822X19860648
M3 - Article
VL - 31
SP - 260
EP - 276
JO - Field Methods
JF - Field Methods
SN - 1525-822X
IS - 3
ER -