Web Survey Bibliography
Feeling thermometers are a commonly-used response format that asks respondents to indicate the extent with which they experience a particular feeling using a 0 to 100 scale, typically by saying or writing the number down. As such, they are easily implemented in telephone, paper, and web-based surveys. Many researchers believe that a feeling thermometer represents ratio scale measurement and is superior to other ordinal scales, though Brady (1985) pointed out the problem of inter-person comparability in using feeling thermometers. In a series of 4 web-based studies with over 100,000 U.S. respondents, we compared the relative effectiveness of feeling thermometers with other response formats that use single response scales with 5 to 7 response categories with end-anchored or fully-anchored (response labels for each category) response formats. Though 3 of the studies focused on political ratings (liking for various political figures), 1 study used the measures to assess attitudes toward various large industries. Respondents were randomly assigned to response format. We examined extent of scale differentiation, scale extremity use, and proportion of middling responses for each response format. We further analyzed the correspondence of the measures with other measures (including party ID). We generally found no superiority of the feeling thermometers in predicting behaviors towards each topic, and some slight superiority of fully-labeled response formats over feeling thermometers in concurrent-related validity. Response patterns for fully-anchored formats were quite different from end-anchored formats and the feeling thermometers, which we relate to the differences in validity we obtained.
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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.