Assessing Three Sources of Misresponse to Reversed Likert Items
Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. 45, pp. 116-131, February 2008
51 Pages Posted: 3 Jun 2007 Last revised: 5 Dec 2012
Abstract
Data collected using multi-item Likert scales that contain reversed items often exhibit problems, such as unexpected factor structures and diminished scale reliabilities. These problems arise when respondents select responses on the same side of the scale neutral point for both reversed and non-reversed items, a phenomenon we call misresponse. Across four experiments and an exploratory study using published data, the authors find that misresponse to reversed Likert items averaged nearly 20%, twice the level identified as problematic in previous simulation studies. Counter to prevailing thought, the patterns of misresponse and response latency across manipulated items could not be attributed to respondent inattention or acquiescence. Instead, the pattern supports an item verification difficulty explanation, which holds that task complexity, and thus misresponse and response latency, increases with the number of cognitive operations required for a respondent to compare a scale item with his or her belief. The observed results are well explained by the Constituent Comparison Model.
Keywords: measurement, Likert, acquiescence, inattention, response styles, reversed items, reverse-scaled, negation, psycholinguistics, constituent comparison
JEL Classification: M31, C42
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
Do you have a job opening that you would like to promote on SSRN?
Recommended Papers
-
Pioneer Advantage: Marketing Logic or Marketing Legend?
By Gerard J. Tellis and Peter N. Golder
-
Marketing in New Ventures: Theory and Empirical Evidence
By Marc Gruber
-
By Govert E. Bijwaard, Maarten Janssen, ...
-
The Effects of Exposure-Order and Market Entry-Information on Brand Preference: A Dual Process Model
By Ronald W. Niedrich and Scott D. Swain
-
By Ronald W. Niedrich and Scott D. Swain
-
Equilibria in a Hotelling Model: First-Mover Advantage?
By Uday Rajan and Amitabh Sinha
-
Identification of Marketing Capabilities: A Study on Indian Product Based B2B Telecom Start-Ups
By Prageet Aeron and Rekha Jain