Web Survey Bibliography
Response categories may be used differently as a result of ethnic background or country of residence. When making comparisons between countries, there are a number of factors (e.g. mode, demographics, etc.) that must be equated before we can attribute differences due to culture and not other factors. Scale polarity is one issue that can cause some differences between countries – bipolar scales may sometimes be inappropriately rendered as unipolar scales (and vice versa) in translations. In this study, we compared scale variants (e.g. unipolar versus bipolar) and extent of semantic anchoring (fully anchored versus end anchored scales) in leading to differences between countries. This experiment had 36,938 respondents from 6 different European countries complete a web-based survey on attitudes and behaviors toward different activities. Respondents were randomly assigned to 1 of 4 scale conditions to rate in terms of their liking for the activity (fully versus end anchored crossed with unipolar versus bipolar). They were first asked how many days they did a series of actions and then evaluated their attitudes toward the actions (e.g. drinking coffee, attending religious services, etc.). We found significant differences in endorsement proportions for the response categories as a function of scale type. The fully anchored unipolar scale showed a lower endorsement of the highest response categories across countries. There were mean differences in the evaluations of the issues as a function of country. However, controlling for familiarity with the topic and demographic factors, we found that these differences between countries was eliminated or reduced for most of the activities we examined. We found significant differences in response style proportions (extreme versus middling response styles) as a result of country of residence. However, response style differences between countries were more likely to occur for the end-anchored scales and not for the fully anchored scales.
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Web survey bibliography - Thomas, R. K. (35)
- Quota Controls in Survey Research.; 2016; Gittelman, S. H.; Thomas, R. K.; Lavrakas, P. J.; Lange, V.
- Scientific Surveys Based on Incomplete Sampling Frames and High Rates of Nonresponse; 2016; Fahimi, M.; Barlas, F. M.; Thomas, R. K.; Buttermore, N. R.
- On the Go: How Mobile Participants Affect Survey Results; 2015; Barlas, F. M.; Thomas, R. K.
- The Matrix Lives On: Improving Grids for Online Surveys; 2015; Thomas, R. K.; Barlas, F. M.; Graham, P.; Subias, T.
- Purposefully Mobile: Experimentally Assessing Device Effects in an Online Survey ; 2015; Barlas, F. M.; Thomas, R. K.; Graham, P.
- Sub-optimal Respondent Behavior and Data Quality in Online Surveys; 2015; Thomas, R. K.
- Respondents Playing Fast and Loose?: Antecedents and Consequences of Respondent Speed of Completion; 2014; Thomas, R. K., Barlas, F. M.
- Alone in a Group: Comparison of Effects of a Group-Administered Paper-Pencil Survey Versus an Individually...; 2013; Higgins, W. B., Barlas, F. M., Pflieger, J., Thomas, R. K., Jeffery, D., Mattiko, M.
- Watch Your Language!: The Impact of the Survey Language on Bilingual Hispanics’ Response Process...; 2013; Ay, M., Gross, W., Cobb, C. L., Thomas, R. K.
- Changing of the Guard: Effects of Different Self-Administered Survey Modes on Sensitive Questions; 2013; Barlas, F. M., Higgins, W. B., Pflieger, J., Thomas, R. K., Jeffery, D., Mattiko, M.
- Response Format Effects in the Measurement of Employment; 2013; Rodkin, S., Thomas, R. K., Subias, S., Chu, C.
- Impact of Filter Questions on Estimates of Media Consumption; 2013; Cobb, C. L., Godinez, D., Thomas, R. K., Baim, J.
- Effects of Response Format on Measurement of Readership; 2013; Thomas, R. K., Cobb, C. L., Baim, J.
- A Shot in the Dark: Measurement Influence on Likelihood to Vaccination; 2012; Higgins, W. B., Thomas, R. K.
- Response Anchoring and Polarity Effects on Endorsement and Response Patterns; 2012; Higgins, W. B., Thomas, R. K.
- I Got a Feeling: Comparison of Feeling Thermometers with Verbally Labeled Scales in Attitude Measurement...; 2012; Thomas, R. K., Bremer, J.
- The River Flows: Comparison of Experimental Effect Replicability with Different Sample Sources; 2012; Thomas, R. K.
- How Likely?: Comparisons of Behavioral Intention Measurement Validity; 2012; Bremer, J., Thomas, R. K.
- Cross-country Comparisons: Effects of Scale Type and Response Style Differences; 2011; Thomas, R. K.
- A Comparison of Branching Response Formats with Single Response Formats; 2011; Thomas, R. K.
- An Injured Party?: A Comparison of Political Party Response Formats in Party Identification.; 2011; Schwarz, S., Barlas, F. M., Thomas, R. K., Corso, R. A., Szoc, R.
- Response format effects on measurement of employment; 2009; Thomas, R. K., Dillman, D. A., Smyth, J. D.
- Response Formats in Cross-cultural Comparisons in Web-based Surveys; 2009; Thomas, R. K.l, Terhanian, G., Funke, F.
- Comparing Adolescent Response Bias Between Internet and Telephone Surveys ; 2009; Klein, J. D., Graff Havens, C., Thomas, R. K.
- Parallel Phone and Web-based Interviews: Effects of Sample and Weighting on Comparability and Validity...; 2008; Thomas, R. K., Krane, D., Taylor, H., Terhanian, G.
- Response Non-Differentiation and Response Styles in Web-Based Studies: Causes and Consequences ; 2008; Frisina, L. T., Thomas, R. K.
- Truth in measurement: Comparing Web Based interviewing Techniques; 2007; Couper, M. P., Terhanian, G., Bremer, J., Thomas, R. K.
- Behavioral self-report measures. International extensions; 2006; Thomas, R. K., Klein, J. D.
- Merely Incidental?: Effects of Response Format on Self-reported Behavior; 2006; Thomas, R. K., Klein, J. D.
- Rating versus comparative trade-off measures. Trending changes in political issues across time and predictive...; 2005; Thomas, R. K., Behnke, S., Johnson, Al., Sanders, M.
- On the primacy of affect in attitude-behavior research; 2004; Thomas, R. K., Schofield, C. M.
- It's Only Incidental: Effects of Response Format in Determining Behavioral or Event Occurrence; 2003; Lafond, C. R., Smith, M. R., Behnke, C. S., Thomas, R. K.
- Can What We Don’t Know (about “Don’t Know”) Hurt Us?: Effects of Item Non-response...; 2003; Krosnick, J. A., Behnke, C. S., Lafond, C. R., Thomas, R. K.
- Model of behavioral intention. A two-factor motivational model of behavioral intention; 2000; Thomas, R. K.
- Factors affecting measurement stability. More is not necessarily better: Effects of number of items...; 1999; Thomas, R. K.