On the Loss of Reliability in Ratings Due to Coarseness of the Scale.

Symonds, Percival M.

doi:10.1037/h0074469

Cited by 163 publications

(116 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…The majority of these studies conclude that the number of points on the answer format given to respondents does not influence reliability (Bendig 1954;Peabody 1962;Komorita 1963;Komorita and Graham 1965;Matell and Jacoby 1971;Jacoby and Matell 1971;Remington, Tyrer, Newson-Smith and Cicchetti 1979;Preston and Colman 2000). A few studies, however, draw the opposite conclusion, recommending the use of higher numbers of scale points (Symonds 1924;Nunnally 1967;Oaster 1989;Finn 1972;Ramsay 1973).…”

Section: Answer Format Effectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Are We Drawing the Right Conclusions? The Dangers of Answer Format Effects in Empirical Tourism Research

Dolničar¹

2006

Tourism Analysis

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Empirical tourism research has a long history and empirically based findings represent an important component of theory development and managerial insight. Nevertheless, empirical data of any kind is susceptible to misinterpretation. The aim of this study is to investigate to which extent empirical tourism research accounts for three sources of potential misinterpretation of results: (1) the occurrence of answer format effects, (2) the occurrence of culturally specific response styles, and (3) the selection of data analytic techniques appropriate for the data format. A review of 43 academic publications from 2000 and 2001 suggests that empirical tourism research is strongly guided by standards which have developed within the tourism research community and are not questioned anymore: ordinal answer formats dominate the field, ordinal data is analyzed using techniques requiring metric data and cross-cultural response styles are ignored, which is a particularly concerning finding given the amount of cross-cultural comparisons typically undertaken in tourism research. Recommendations for improvement are made. KeywordsKey words: answer format effects, response styles, cross-cultural research Nevertheless, empirical data of any kind is susceptible to misinterpretation. The aim of this study is to investigate to which extent empirical tourism research accounts for three sources of potential misinterpretation of results: (1) the occurrence of answer format effects, (2) the occurrence of culturally specific response styles, and (3) the selection of data analytic techniques appropriate for the data format. A review of 43 academic publications from 2000 and 2001 suggests that empirical tourism research is strongly guided by standards which have developed within the tourism research community and are not questioned anymore: ordinal answer formats dominate the field, ordinal data is analyzed using techniques requiring metric data and cross-cultural response styles are ignored, which is a particularly concerning finding given the amount of cross-cultural comparisons typically undertaken in tourism research. Recommendations for improvement are made.

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Section: Answer Format Effectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Are We Drawing the Right Conclusions? The Dangers of Answer Format Effects in Empirical Tourism Research

Dolničar¹

2006

Tourism Analysis

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“…Based on these studies, authors recommend five-point answer formats (Remmers & Ewart, 1941, Lissitz & Green, 1975Jenkins & Taber, 1977), seven-point answer formats (Symonds, 1924;Oaster, 1989;Finn, 1972;Cicchetti, Showalter & Tyrer, 1985), and 18-24 point formats (Champney & Marshall, 1939). Chang (1994) challenges this body of research by demonstrating that higher numbers of answer options cause larger response sets, which in turn lead to inflated correlations.…”

Section: Arguments In Support Of Multi-category Answer Formatsmentioning

confidence: 99%

One legacy of Mazanec: binary questions are a simple, stable and valid measure of evaluative beliefs

Dolničar

Leisch

2012

International Journal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research

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One legacy of Mazanec: binary questions are a simple, stable and valid measure of evaluative beliefs AbstractPurpose -Academic researchers love multi-category answer formats, especially five-and seven-point formats.More than a decade ago Josef Mazanec concluded that these formats may not the best choice, and that simple binary-answer options are preferable in some empirical survey contexts. The purpose of the present study is to investigate empirically Mazanec's hypothesis in the context of the measurement of evaluative beliefs relating to fast-food restaurants.Design/methodology/approach -The authors conducted an online experiment that asked respondents to assess evaluative beliefs relating to fast-food brands using either a forced binary (n = 100) or a seven-point answer format (n = 100). The authors also measured preferences for each of the fast-food restaurants, user friendliness, and recorded the actual completion times for the survey.Findings -The results indicate that the full binary answer format outperforms the popular seven-point multicategory format with respect to stability, concurrent validity, and speed of completion.Practical implications -Given the demonstrated strengths of full binary measures, they should be used more by both practitioners and academics when measuring evaluative beliefs.Originality/value -This study provides empirical evidence of the strong performance of the forced binaryanswer format for the measurement of evaluative beliefs, and thus challenges current measurement practice among academics and practitioners. AbstractPurpose -Academic researchers love multi-category answer formats, especially five-and seven-point formats. More than a decade ago Josef Mazanec concluded that these formats may not the best choice, and that simple binary-answer options are preferable in some empirical survey contexts. The present study empirically investigates Mazanec's hypothesis in the context of the measurement of evaluative beliefs relating to fast-food restaurants.Design/methodology/approach -We conducted an online experiment that asked respondents to assess evaluative beliefs relating to fast-food brands using either a forced binary (n = 100) or a seven-point answer format (n = 100). We also measured preferences for each of the fast-food restaurants, user friendliness, and recorded the actual completion times for the survey.Findings -Results indicate that the full binary-answer format outperforms the popular seven-point multi-category format with respect to stability, concurrent validity, and speed of completion.Practical implications -Given the demonstrated strengths of full binary measures, they should be used more by both practitioners and academics when measuring evaluative beliefs.Originality/value -This study provides empirical evidence of the strong performance of the forced binary-answer format for the measurement of evaluative beliefs, and thus challenges current measurement practice among academics and practitioners.

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“…Some workers conclud the one-way ANOVA is relatively robust against violations of the homoscedasticity assumption as well as against violations of the normality assumption. However, textbooks in statistics (e.g., Lomax and Hahs-Vaughn, 2007;Ryan, 2007) often recommend the BrownForsythe and Welch tests when the data are characterised by apparent heteroscedasticity, particularly at unequal sample sizes, or the Kruskal-Wallis test when the data are clearly not mound-shaped.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%