Abstract
In social science research, unipolar and bipolar scales are commonly used methods in measuring respondents’ attitudes and opinions. Compared to other rating scale characteristics, scale polarity (unipolar and bipolar) and its effects on response behavior have rarely been addressed in previous research. To fill this gap in the literature, we investigate whether and to what extent fully verbalized unipolar and bipolar scales influence response behavior by analyzing observed and latent response distributions and latent thresholds of response categories. For this purpose, we conducted a survey experiment in a probability-based online panel and randomly assigned respondents to a unipolar or bipolar scale condition. The results reveal substantial differences between the two rating scales. They show significantly different response distributions and measurement non-invariance. In addition, response categories (and latent thresholds) of unipolar and bipolar scales are not equally distributed. The findings show that responses to unipolar and bipolar scales differ not only on the observational level but also on the latent level. Both rating scales vary with respect to their measurement properties, so that the responses obtained using each scale are not easily comparable. We recommend not considering unipolar and bipolar scales as interchangeable.
Highlights
Introduction and BackgroundMany major national and international surveys, such as the CROss National Online Survey, which is part of the European Social Survey, regularly measure respondents’ attitudes and opinions on a variety of political and social topics, such as incomeequality
Consistent with our previous hypotheses on the observational level and the findings reported in the survey literature on the differences between the two types of rating scales, we expect to obtain measurement non-invariance between unipolar and bipolar scales on the latent level (Hypothesis 2)
We analyzed observed and latent response distributions and computed latent thresholds to infer the equidistance between response categories of unipolar and bipolar scales
Summary
Many major national and international surveys, such as the CROss National Online Survey, which is part of the European Social Survey, regularly measure respondents’ attitudes and opinions on a variety of political and social topics, such as income (in)equality. To measure this kind of information, researchers usually employ rating scales (i.e., closed response formats with a list of ordered response categories). Researchers must decide whether to have a midpoint or not (i.e., whether to have an even or uneven number of scale points). The aspect of scale verbalization is associated with the aspect of scale polarity (i.e., unipolar or bipolar)
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