Comparing Incomparable Survey Responses: Evaluating and Selecting Anchoring Vignettes

21 Pages Posted: 9 Jan 2008

See all articles by Jonathan Wand

Jonathan Wand

Stanford University; University of Michigan at Ann Arbor

Gary King

Harvard University

Abstract

When respondents use the ordinal response categories of standard survey questions in different ways, the validity of analyses based on the resulting data can be biased. Anchoring vignettes is a survey design technique, introduced by King, Murray, Salomon, and Tandon (2004), intended to correct for some of these problems. We develop new methods both for evaluating and choosing anchoring vignettes, and for analyzing the resulting data. With surveys on a diverse range of topics in a range of countries, we illustrate how our proposed methods can improve the ability of anchoring vignettes to extract information from survey data, as well as saving in survey administration costs.

Suggested Citation

Wand, Jonathan and King, Gary, Comparing Incomparable Survey Responses: Evaluating and Selecting Anchoring Vignettes. Political Analysis, Vol. 15, No. 1, pp. 46-66, Winter 2007, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1082000

Jonathan Wand

Stanford University ( email )

Encina Hall West, Room 307
Stanford, CA 94305-6044

HOME PAGE: http://wand.stanford.edu

University of Michigan at Ann Arbor ( email )

500 S. State Street

Gary King (Contact Author)

Harvard University ( email )

1737 Cambridge St.
Institute for Quantitative Social Science
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States
617-500-7570 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://gking.harvard.edu

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