Generalization of Classic Question Order Effects Across Cultures

• Published in: Sociological Methods & Research
• Main Authors: Stark, Tobias H., Silber, Henning, Krosnick, Jon A., Blom, Annelies G., Aoyagi, Midori, Belchior, Ana, Bosnjak, Michael, Clement, Sanne Lund, John, Melvin, Jonsdottir, Gudbjorg Andrea, Lawson, Karen, Lynn, Peter, Martinsson, Johan, Shamshiri-Petersen, Ditte, Tvinnereim, Endre, Yu, Ruoh-rong
• Other Authors: Social Science Research Institute (UI), Félagsvísindastofnun (HÍ), Félagsvísindasvið (HÍ), School of Social Sciences (UI), Háskóli Íslands, University of Iceland
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: SAGE Publications 2018
• Subjects: Cross-cultural; Perceptual contrast; Question order effects; Questionnaire design; Survey methods; Spurningalistar; Aðferðafræði; Kannanir; Þvermenningarlegur samanburður; Canada; Norway; Iceland
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11815/2259; https://doi.org/10.1177/0049124117747304

Publisher's version (útgefin grein) Questionnaire design is routinely guided by classic experiments on question form, wording, and context conducted decades ago. This article explores whether two question order effects (one due to the norm of evenhandedness and the other due to subtraction or perceptual contrast) appear in surveys of probability samples in the United States and 11 other countries (Canada, Denmark, Germany, Iceland, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, Taiwan, and the United Kingdom; N = 25,640). Advancing theory of question order effects, we propose necessary conditions for each effect to occur, and found that the effects occurred in the nations where these necessary conditions were met. Surprisingly, the abortion question order effect even appeared in some countries in which the necessary condition was not met, suggesting that the question order effect there (and perhaps elsewhere) was not due to subtraction or perceptual contrast. The question order effects were not moderated by education. The strength of the effect due to the norm of evenhandedness was correlated with various cultural characteristics of the nations. Strong support was observed for the form-resistant correlation hypothesis. This article uses data from the German Internet Panel waves 8 (doi:10.4232/1.12614) and 9 (doi:10.4232/1.12615). A study description can be found in . The German Internet Panel is the central data collection (project Z1) of Collaborative Research Center 884 “Political Economy of Reforms” (SFB 884) at the University of Mannheim and is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). The Longitudinal Internet Studies for the Social Sciences (LISS) Panel data were collected by CentERdata (Tilburg University, the Netherlands) through its Measurement and Experimentation in the Social Sciences (MESS) project funded by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (grant number 176.010.2005.017). This article uses data from the GESIS Panel (doi:10.4232/1.12658). The development of the GESIS ...