The response style myth an empirical study involving the T-scale

Abstract

Summary Various writers have suggested that a number of response sets and styles act as extraneous influences on the data obtained when questionnaires are use. In consequence, the significance of response sets and styles has become a central issue in personality assessment and social research. Recently the response style protagonists have been attacked by L.G. Rorer who argues that a ‘response style myth’ has been created. The present paper reports a study based on the T-scale which tests the major conclusions of Rorer. The findings show that attitude scales such as the T-scale are not influenced to any significant extent by response styles such as indecisiveness, or agreeing. They also show that people respond to the content of attitude scale items when they are not ambiguous, difficult or badly worded. The findings support Rorer's main conclusions.