The DOI matches its Crossref record; 80 of the 80 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
The Reliability of Survey Attitude Measurement: The Influence of Question and Respondent Attributes
Open accessAbstract
Several theoretical hypotheses are developed concerning the relation of question and respondent characteristics to the reliability of survey attitude measurement. To test these hypotheses, reliability is estimated for 96 survey attitude measures using data from five, 3-wave national reinterview surveys-three Michigan Election Panel Surveys and two reinterview studies conducted by the General Social Survey. As hypothesized, a number of attributes of questions are linked to estimated reliability. Attitude questions with more response options tended to have higher reliabilities, although there are some important exceptions. More extensive verbal labeling of numbered response options was found to be associated with higher reliability, but questions explicitly offering a “don't know” alternative were not found to be more reliable. Question characteristics were confounded to an unknown degree with topic differences of questions, which were significantly linked to reliability, leaving the influence of question characteristics on reliability somewhat ambiguous. Characteristics of respondents were also found to be related to levels of reliability. Older respondents and those with less schooling provided the least reliable attitude reports. These results are discussed within a general framework for the consideration of survey errors and their sources.
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“Increased error in some population (whether systematic or random) makes measures less capable at capturing individual differences in the trait of interest in that population (see e.g., refs. 20–22; see also ref. 23).”
From Simpson’s gender-equality paradox (2025) · cites this paper as [20]
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Metadata
- Authors
- ALWIN, D. F., & KROSNICK, J. A.
- Affiliations
- University of Michigan (US)
- The Ohio State University (US)
- ORCID
- KROSNICK, JON A.
- Venue
- Sociological Methods & Research
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 1991-08
- Volume
- 20
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 139-181
- ISSN
- 0049-1241 (ISSN-L)
- 1552-8294
- OpenAlex
- W2137597548
- Cited by
- 403
- References
- 74
- Citations by year
- 2026: 10 · 2025: 13 · 2024: 17 · 2023: 18 · 2022: 16 · 2021: 31 · 2020: 15 · 2019: 19 · 2018: 16 · 2017: 15 · 2016: 12 · 2015: 31 · 2014: 16 · 2013: 13 · 2012: 17
- FWCI
- 7.65
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- hdl.handle.net
- Locations
- Sociological Methods & Research (publishedVersion)
- Deep Blue (University of Michigan) (submittedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Survey Methodology and Nonresponse
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Management Science and Operations Research › Psychometric Methodologies and Testing
- Physical Sciences › Mathematics › Statistics and Probability › Survey Sampling and Estimation Techniques
- Keywords
- survey reliability, attitude measurement, question characteristics, response options, respondent characteristics, age effects, educational attainment, survey error, General Social Survey
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