Taking Another Look at Counterarguments: When do Survey Respondents Switch their Answers?

Abstract

Counterarguments are an often asked but little studied question format. In this format, a respondent first offers an opinion to a question, and depending upon that answer, is then asked one or more additional questions each with information that might cause a respondent to switch his or her earlier answer. In past studies, a third to a half of respondents typically switched their original answer. This meta-analysis of all the identifiable counterarguments from iPOLL’s online archive reports that switching occurs at different rates across different issues. Switching also most often occurs if respondents favored the prior question, if questioning occurs later during the survey, and if other counterarguments were previously asked of a respondent. Mode and house effects also appear.