Moving beyond Likert and Traditional Forced-Choice Scales: A Comprehensive Investigation of the Graded Forced-Choice Format

Abstract

The graded forced-choice (FC) format has recently emerged as an alternative that may preserve the advantages and overcome the issues of the dichotomous FC measures. The current study presented the first large-scale evaluation of the performance of three types of FC measures (FC2, FC4 and FC5 with 2, 4 and 5 response options, respectively) and compared their performance to their Likert (LK) counterparts (LK2, LK4, and LK5) on (1) psychometric properties, (2) respondent reactions, and (3) susceptibility to response styles. Results showed that, compared to LK measures with the same number of response options, the three FC scales provided better support for the hypothesized factor structure, were perceived as more faking-resistant and cognitive demanding, and were less susceptible to response styles. FC4/5 and LK4/5 demonstrated similarly good reliability, while LK2 provided more reliable scores than FC2. When compared across the three FC measures, FC4 and FC5 displayed comparable psychometric performance and respondent reactions. FC4 exhibited a moderate presence of extreme response style, while FC5 had a weak presence of both extreme and middle response styles. Based on these findings, the study recommends the use of graded FC over dichotomous FC and LK, particularly FC5 when extreme response style is a concern.