engleski

How much are you willing to give? The response scales can influence the size of donations

There is an extensive literature documenting the effects of response scales on answers to a wide range of factual survey questions (e.g. hours of watching TV). One could argue that most survey respondents do not perceive their participation and answers as something very important or relevant for themselves or significant others. If the questions were more involving, or the consequences of "wrong" answers more significant, we might expect fewer effects of scale values. Still, there is some evidence that runs counter to this hypothesis (Slovic and Monahan, 1995, 2000). In this experiment, we look how much money would respondents be willing to give to a fictitious foundation, when they are asked to express their answers on response scales with varying midpoints ($50, $250, and $500). The data were collected within a web survey in Fall 2004. The amount of donations that respondents were willing to give was significantly higher the higher was the scale midpoint. The results confirm the hypothesis that scale midpoints can serve as anchors when making a judgment (Tourangeau et al, 2000, 2004), and that this is true even for personally directly relevant judgments.

response scales; donations; anchoring

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