{"title":"The Influence of Rating Scales and Question Attributes on the Validity and Reliability of Generalized Trust Scales","authors":"Blaine G. Robbins","doi":"10.1007/s11205-024-03372-1","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p>Trust is important for a range of societal outcomes. Despite its significance, there is considerable debate about how best to measure trust. In the context of a newly developed measure of generalized trust—the Stranger Face Trust scale (SFT)—this study evaluates whether different features of survey scales affect the reliability and validity of SFT, which relies on the standard 4-point unipolar scale used by many survey institutes. In a survey experiment conducted with a non-probability sample of U.S. adults (<i>N</i> = 4252), we randomly assigned intensity scale midpoints, polarity, and “don’t know” options to SFT. Results indicate that 7- and 9-point bipolar scales without a “don’t know” option slightly outperform all other scales on some psychometric tests, particularly those related to formal properties of the scales and factorial validity, but not on psychometric tests assessing survey environment or convergent, discriminant, and concurrent validity.</p>","PeriodicalId":21943,"journal":{"name":"Social Indicators Research","volume":"16 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.8000,"publicationDate":"2024-06-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Social Indicators Research","FirstCategoryId":"90","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-024-03372-1","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"SOCIAL SCIENCES, INTERDISCIPLINARY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Trust is important for a range of societal outcomes. Despite its significance, there is considerable debate about how best to measure trust. In the context of a newly developed measure of generalized trust—the Stranger Face Trust scale (SFT)—this study evaluates whether different features of survey scales affect the reliability and validity of SFT, which relies on the standard 4-point unipolar scale used by many survey institutes. In a survey experiment conducted with a non-probability sample of U.S. adults (N = 4252), we randomly assigned intensity scale midpoints, polarity, and “don’t know” options to SFT. Results indicate that 7- and 9-point bipolar scales without a “don’t know” option slightly outperform all other scales on some psychometric tests, particularly those related to formal properties of the scales and factorial validity, but not on psychometric tests assessing survey environment or convergent, discriminant, and concurrent validity.
期刊介绍：
Since its foundation in 1974, Social Indicators Research has become the leading journal on problems related to the measurement of all aspects of the quality of life. The journal continues to publish results of research on all aspects of the quality of life and includes studies that reflect developments in the field. It devotes special attention to studies on such topics as sustainability of quality of life, sustainable development, and the relationship between quality of life and sustainability. The topics represented in the journal cover and involve a variety of segmentations, such as social groups, spatial and temporal coordinates, population composition, and life domains. The journal presents empirical, philosophical and methodological studies that cover the entire spectrum of society and are devoted to giving evidences through indicators. It considers indicators in their different typologies, and gives special attention to indicators that are able to meet the need of understanding social realities and phenomena that are increasingly more complex, interrelated, interacted and dynamical. In addition, it presents studies aimed at defining new approaches in constructing indicators.
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