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      Rating-Scale Labeling in Online Surveys: An Experimental Comparison of Verbal and Numeric Rating Scales with Respect to Measurement Quality and Respondents’ Cognitive Processes

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      Sociological Methods & Research
      SAGE Publications

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          Abstract

          Unlike other data collection modes, the effect of labeling rating scales on reliability and validity, as relevant aspects of measurement quality, has seldom been addressed in online surveys. In this study, verbal and numeric rating scales were compared in split-ballot online survey experiments. In the first experiment, respondents’ cognitive processes were observed by means of eye tracking, that is, determining the respondent’s fixations in different areas of the screen. In the remaining experiments, data for reliability and validity analysis were collected from a German adult sample. The results show that respondents needed more fixations and more time to endorse a category when a rating scale had numeric labels. Cross-sectional reliability was lower and some hypotheses with respect to the criterion validity could not be supported when numeric rating scales were used. In conclusion, theoretical considerations and the empirical results contradict the current broad usage of numeric scales in online surveys.

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          Statistical power analysis for the behavior sciences

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            Statistical theories of mental test scores

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              Right‐Wing Authoritarianism

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                Author and article information

                Journal
                Sociological Methods & Research
                Sociological Methods & Research
                SAGE Publications
                0049-1241
                1552-8294
                February 2020
                October 02 2017
                February 2020
                : 49
                : 1
                : 79-107
                Affiliations
                [1 ]GESIS—Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences, Mannheim, Germany
                Article
                10.1177/0049124117729694
                32f6168a-6ac1-4137-abd4-c182fa40a1b5
                © 2020

                http://journals.sagepub.com/page/policies/text-and-data-mining-license

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