Question-Order Effects in Surveys: The Case of Political Interest, News Attention, and Knowledge

2003 ◽  
Vol 80 (3) ◽  
pp. 499-512 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dominic L. Lasorsa
Keyword(s):  
Context Effects ◽  
Political Knowledge ◽  
Political Interest ◽  
Order Effects ◽  
Knowledge Test ◽  
Poor Knowledge ◽  
Survey Questions ◽  
Question Order

Subjects were exposed to one of three survey versions differing only in question order. Those who first faced difficult political knowledge questions reported significantly lower levels of both political interest and news attention than those who did not first face the knowledge test. However, when the knowledge questions and the interest and attention questions were separated by a “buffer” item that could serve as an excuse for poor knowledge, self-assessed interest and attention were less depressed. Characteristics of survey questions that may make them particularly susceptible to these types of question-order context effects are discussed and strategies for dealing with such effects are noted.

Political Interest, Political Knowledge, and Evaluations of Political News Sources: Their Interplay in Producing Context Effects

2009 ◽  
Vol 86 (3) ◽  
pp. 533-544 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dominic L. Lasorsa
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Dissonance ◽  
Context Effects ◽  
Political Knowledge ◽  
Political Interest ◽  
Survey Experiment ◽  
Political News ◽  
News Sources ◽  
Specific Effects ◽  
General Explanation

In a survey experiment, political interest reports declined when preceded by political knowledge questions. The effect was stronger among women and those of less education, income, and age. The effect was lessened when buffering knowledge from interest items were questions evaluating how well politicians and media keep one informed, where they could serve as excuses for cognitive dissonance. Placed before the knowledge items, however, the evaluations exacerbated rather than alleviated the effect. Findings point both to priming as a general explanation for context effects and to the limitation of priming as an explanation for specific effects.

scholarly journals The Ordering of Gambling Severity and Harm Scales: A Cautionary Tale

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Kate Sollis ◽  
Patrick Leslie ◽  
Nicholas Biddle ◽  
Marisa Paterson
Keyword(s):  
Context Effects ◽  
Severity Index ◽  
Order Effects ◽  
Subjective Experiences ◽  
Prevalence Survey ◽  
Problem Gambling Severity Index ◽  
Question Order ◽  
Consistent Manner ◽  
Gambling Severity ◽  
Comparability Of Results

Question-order effects are known to occur in surveys, particularly those that measure subjective experiences. The presence of context effects will impact the comparability of results if questions have not been presented in a consistent manner. In this study, we examined the influence of question order on how people responded to two gambling scales in the Australian Capital Territory Gambling Prevalence Survey: The Problem Gambling Severity Index and the Short Gambling Harm Screen. The application of these scales in gambling surveys is continuing to grow, the results being compared across time and between jurisdictions, countries, and populations. Here we outline a survey experiment that randomized the question ordering of these two scales. The results show that question-order effects are present for these scales, demonstrating that results from them may not be comparable across jurisdictions if the scales have not been presented consistently across surveys. These findings highlight the importance of testing for the presence of question-order effects, particularly for those scales that measure subjective experiences, and correcting for such effects where they exist by randomizing scale order.

The Effect of Changes to Question Order on the Prevalence of ‘Sufficient’ Physical Activity in an Australian Population Survey

2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 390-396
Author(s):  
Christine Hanley ◽  
Mitch J. Duncan ◽  
W. Kerry Mummery
Keyword(s):  
Physical Activity ◽  
Binary Logistic Regression ◽  
Total Activity ◽  
Order Effects ◽  
Computer Assisted ◽  
Moderate Activity ◽  
Question Order ◽  
Recreational Walking ◽  
Cati Survey ◽  
The Impact

Background:Population surveys are frequently used to assess prevalence, correlates and health benefits of physical activity. However, nonsampling errors, such as question order effects, in surveys may lead to imprecision in self reported physical activity. This study examined the impact of modified question order in a commonly used physical activity questionnaire on the prevalence of sufficient physical activity.Methods:Data were obtained from a telephone survey of adults living in Queensland, Australia. A total of 1243 adults participated in the computer-assisted telephone interview (CATI) survey conducted in July 2008 which included the Active Australia Questionnaire (AAQ) presented in traditional or modified order. Binary logistic regression analyses was used to examine relationships between question order and physical activity outcomes.Results:Significant relationships were found between question order and sufficient activity, recreational walking, moderate activity, vigorous activity, and total activity. Respondents who received the AAQ in modified order were more likely to be categorized as sufficiently active (OR = 1.28, 95% CI 1.01−1.60).Conclusions:This study highlights the importance of question order on estimates of self reported physical activity. This study has shown that changes in question order can lead to an increase in the proportion of participants classified as sufficiently active.

Assessing the Perceived Importance of Skin Cancer: How Question-Order Effects Are Influenced by Issue Involvement

2005 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 398-412 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rajiv N. Rimal ◽  
Kevin Real
Keyword(s):  
Skin Cancer ◽  
Telephone Survey ◽  
Formative Research ◽  
Order Effects ◽  
Contextual Variables ◽  
The Public ◽  
Issue Involvement ◽  
Perceived Importance ◽  
Question Order ◽  
Health Related

Question-order effects refer to systematic differences in responses that can be attributed to the manner in which questions assessing attitudes and cognitions are asked. This article hypothesized that question-order effects in assessing the perceived importance of skin cancer would be moderated by the extent to which people are involved with the issue of skin cancer. A telephone survey ( N = 325) was conducted by administering two versions of the same questionnaire, one in which importance of skin cancer was assessed without other contextual variables and another in which contextual variables were asked before assessing the importance of skin cancer. As hypothesized, when people were highly involved with the issue, question-order effects did not occur. When involvement was low, importance of skin cancer was greater in the absence of contextual questions than in their presence. Findings have implications for how health-related issues are communicated to the public and how formative research is conducted.

Question-Order Effects on the Determinants of Subjective Well-Being

1988 ◽  
Vol 52 (3) ◽  
pp. 351 ◽  
Author(s):  
McKee J. McClendon ◽  
David J. O'Brien
Keyword(s):  
Well Being ◽  
Order Effects ◽  
Subjective Well Being ◽  
Question Order

A Big Bird effect? The interaction among public broadcasting, public subsidies, and political knowledge

2015 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 311-332 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick O’Mahen
Keyword(s):  
Political Knowledge ◽  
Demographic Variables ◽  
Public Affairs ◽  
Political Interest ◽  
Public Broadcasting ◽  
Media Consumption ◽  
Advertising Revenue ◽  
Public Subsidies ◽  
Industrialized Democracies ◽  
Knowledge Levels

Policymakers in industrialized democracies often debate the efficacy of subsidizing public broadcasters. Surprisingly however, past media and politics research analyzing the effects of public broadcasting on political knowledge does not isolate the effect of subsidies and instead treats all public broadcasters as equals. This study theorizes that subsidized public broadcasters have to worry less about competing with entertainment-oriented commercial broadcasters for advertising revenue than their unsubsidized peers. As a result, they can focus on providing more comprehensive public affairs coverage instead of only worrying about attracting the largest possible audience. To test this theory, I use Eurobarometer data measuring knowledge, media consumption, and demographic variables from 14 countries. I find that watching public broadcasting increases knowledge levels among citizens, while decreasing gaps in knowledge between citizens caused by varying levels of education, income, gender, and political interest. However, as predicted, these benefits only occur in countries that provide significant subsidies for their public broadcasters.

scholarly journals AUTHORITARIANISM AND COGNITIVE POLITICAL INVOLVEMENT

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 521
Author(s):  
Zoran Pavlović ◽  
Bojan Todosijević
Keyword(s):  
Political Knowledge ◽  
Demographic Variables ◽  
Political Interest ◽  
General Interest ◽  
Opinion Survey ◽  
Authoritarian Personality ◽  
Parliamentary Elections ◽  
New Information ◽  
The World ◽  
Voting Age

This study analyses the linkage between authoritarianism and three indicators that describe one’s general cognitive orientation towards the world of politics: political knowledge, general interest in politics, and interest in the election campaign. Individuals high in authoritarianism are hypothesized to be less politically competent and less interested in politics, due to their resistance to adopting new information and to changing the adopted beliefs. This hypothesis is based on the classical description of the authoritarian personality, but it has not been adequately empirically verified yet. The data are taken from a post-election public opinion survey conducted in 2012 after the presidential and parliamentary elections, on a random sample of voting age citizens of Serbia (N = 1568). The results show that authoritarianism and the level of political knowledge are significantly and negatively correlated, even after controlling for the basic socio-demographic variables. The intensity of political interest is not significantly correlated with authoritarianism. Additional comparison of the misinformed and uninformed groups (those who provided incorrect answers, and those who answered “don't know”, respectively) did not support the view that authoritarian persons are more inclined to erroneously guess an answer than to simply say “don’t know”. The study concludes that the association between political knowledge and authoritarianism is based on deeper psychological roots, while the (lack of) association with political interest is likely to be context-dependent.

Question order effects.

2012 ◽  
pp. 229-248 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth A. Rasinski ◽  
Lisa Lee ◽  
Parvati Krishnamurty
Keyword(s):  
Order Effects ◽  
Question Order

scholarly journals Question Order and Multidimensionality of Partisanship

1993 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
pp. 501-514
Author(s):  
Michael A. Maggiotto ◽  
Gary D. Wekkin
Keyword(s):  
Political Behavior ◽  
Local Politics ◽  
Party Identification ◽  
Order Effects ◽  
Contrast Effects ◽  
National State ◽  
Question Order ◽  
Special Concern ◽  
State And Local ◽  
Partisan Identification

The recognition of question-order problems has prompted a reexamination of theory and data in several areas of political behavior. The possibility of question-order effects is of special concern to the study of party identification, the original conceptualization of which has been criticized for disregarding multi dimensionality. We have yet to discover whether the sequence and/or proximity of items measuring multiple, related dimensions may influence findings. An area of research in which results may be especially susceptible to reactivity is that of multiple partisan identification. Most of the studies in this literature asked respondents a context-differentiated sequence of items about their partisan identification in national and state and (infrequently) local politics, respectively, separated only by the usual probes for intensity and direction. The responses obtained logically risk contamination by either consistency or contrast effects, as well as by salience or frame-of-reference effects generated by intervening or antecedent, nonrecursively-related items. In this study, we report the results of two experiments used to control for potential question-order effects in the measurement of multiple party identification. In the first, national and state partisan identification items were alternated in sequence in order to test whether responses to national partisan identification items structure responses to state (and local) partisan identification items. In the second, party thermometer items, national, state, and local partisan identification items, and national, state, and local retrospective evaluations of party governing performance were rotated sequentially. Generally, responses to these three measures of partisanship did not differ significantly as the order of appearance changed.

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