This paper explores how the visual design of scalar questions influences responses in web surveys. We present the results of five experiments embedded in two web surveys of university students. We find that consistently presenting the positive end of the scale first did not impact responses but increases response times. Displaying the categories in multiple columns influence how respondents process the scale and increase response times. Separating the midpoint, ``don't know'' option, or endpoints spatially does not impact responses when the visual and conceptual midpoint align. Removing the graphical layout of the scale influences responses when lower numbers indicate more positive categories and increases response time. Finally, response times are longer for polar point scales with numeric labels, but there are no differences in responses. Overall, our results suggest that the visual design of response scales impacts measurement, but that some manipulations produce larger and more significant differences than others.

This article examines the history of the Baseball Hall of Fame as a cultural consecration project. It argues that the legitimacy of any consecration project depends on the cultural authority of the organization initiating the project, the rigorous selection procedures used by this organization, the relative selectivity of its outcomes, and the existence of objective differences in merit between the consecrated and the unconsecrated. However, prior research suggests that the relationship between merit and consecration is mediated by a series of social characteristics and contextual factors. This study proposes a theory of cumulative recognition, which asserts that the likelihood of consecration is affected by the cumulative effects of social characteristics and circumstances, prior social recognition, and media discourse, as well as by objective differences in achievement. The results of discrete-time event-history analyses of the outcomes of the Hall of Fame elections over the past four decades provide substantial confirmation of this theory. Overall, it is concluded that the procedural and substantive rationality exhibited by the Hall of Fame contributes greatly to its cultural legitimacy as a consecration project.

In 2009, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) executed a year-long field study at a refinery in Corpus Christi, TX, to evaluate the use of passive diffusive sampling technology for assessing time-averaged benzene concentrations at the facility fence line. The purpose of the study was to investigate the implementation viability and performance of this type of monitoring in a real-world setting as part of EPA's fence-line measurement research program. The study utilized 14-day, time-integrated Carbopack X samplers deployed at 18 locations on the fence line and at two nearby air monitoring sites equipped with automated gas chromatographs. The average fence-line benzene concentration during the study was 1075 parts per trillion by volume (pptv) with a standard deviation of 1935 pptv. For a 6-month period during which wind direction was uniform, the mean concentration value for a group of downwind sites exceeded the mean value of a similar upwind group by 1710 pptv. Mean value differences for these groups were not statistically significant for the remaining 6-month time period when wind directions were mixed. The passive sampling approach exhibited acceptable performance with a data completeness value of 97.1% (n ϭ 579). Benzene concentration comparisons with automated gas chromatographs yielded an r 2 value of 0.86 and a slope of 0.90 (n ϭ 50). A linear regression of duplicate pairs yielded an r 2 of 0.97, unity slope, and zero intercept (n ϭ 56). In addition to descriptions of technique performance and general results, time-series analyses are described, providing insight into the utility of 2-week sampling for source apportionment under differing meteorological conditions. The limitations of the approach and recommendations for future measurement method development work are also discussed.

Few studies have employed a controlled experimental design to test the effectiveness of unconditional cash incentives on the rates of participation in web surveys. Even fewer studies have looked at the effects of these incentives on nonresponse bias in web surveys. This article addresses these two underresearched areas by utilizing two separate sources of data on a random sample of college students. Specifically, we examine the impact of prepaid token incentives on response rates to a web survey and compare survey data on respondents to administrative records of all sampled persons. Results support the use of unconditional incentives in web surveys as an effective way to improve response. However, contrary to several studies on the relationship

This study evaluates the characteristics of the men who served in the volunteer military in combat occupations. It examines whether these characteristics stem from supply-side or demand-side decisions, or reflect class bias. The findings suggest that, on the supply side, men who had greater academic abilities were more likely to go to college, thereby avoiding military service and the possibility of serving in a combat occupation. On the demand side, the armed forces were more likely to exclude men with lower academic abilities but were more likely to assign such men in the military to combat occupations. Net of the impacts of these supply-side and demand-side decisions, men who served in combat occupations still differed from those who did not in terms of their family background. The impact of family background was stronger on entering the military than on being assigned to combat occupations once in the military. Keywords military; inequality; occupationsMuch research has examined how the people who served in the U.S. military differed from those who did not (e.g., Bachman, Segal, Freedman-Doan, and O'Malley 2000) and how the men who fought and died in U.S. wars differed from those who did not (e.g., Allen, Herrmann, and Giles 1994;Wilson 1995). However, little is known about the process by which people come to be at the greatest risk of fighting and dying, the process by which they come to serve in combat occupations. Only one previous article has examined this process. It focused on the Vietnam war era and showed that servicemen with low entry test scores were more likely to serve in combat occupations than those with high test scores (Gimbel and Booth 1996). This article evaluates the characteristics of the men who were assigned to combat occupations in the late 1970s and the early 1980s, the early years of the All-Volunteer Force (AVF). Even during peacetime, service-members who perform combat occupations suffer the greatest risks relative to other service-members and receive the fewest rewards. If a war occurs, they are the ones most likely to see combat (Gimbel and Booth 1996). In addition, previous research suggests that they learn skills that are less transferable than those learned by service-members in non-combat occupations and have lower earnings in the civilian labor market (Mangum and Ball 1987 NIH-PA Author ManuscriptNIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author ManuscriptThis article contributes to research regarding the broader subject of social stratification in two areas. Scholars in the first area have explored educational transitions. They have theoretically and methodologically distinguished equality of opportunity from equality of result within the educational system (Buis 2008; Mare 1981). The article applies this distinction to the study of the military. It extends the model of nested transitions that has been developed to study educational outcomes to the study of the nested transitions that lead people to experience different military outcomes. Scholars in the second area have exam...