The Effect of Rating Scale on Response Style: Experimental Evidence for Job Satisfaction

in Journal of Well-Being Assessment (2020)

This paper explores the relationship between rating scales and response style using experimental data from a sample of 1500 households of the Innovation Panel (2008) which is part of the Understanding ... [more ▼]

This paper explores the relationship between rating scales and response style using experimental data from a sample of 1500 households of the Innovation Panel (2008) which is part of the Understanding Society database. Two random groups of individuals are being asked about their level of job satisfaction using a self-assessment questionnaire through two (7 and 11 points) rating options. By comparing the two groups, we explore the effects of the different rating scales on Extreme Response Style (ERS). The experimental design of the data enables us to show that both high and low Extreme Response Style (ERS) are correlated with personal and demographic characteristics. In addition, when comparing the shorter to a longer scale, we show that the survey design may generates tendency to choose responses at the extreme values of the distribution. [less ▲]