The Impact of Age and Education on Response Order Effects in Attitude Measurement

This article addresses the impact of age and education on the emergence of response order effects. Previous research has suggested that response order effects are stronger for respondents with less formal education. Education, however, is negatively correlated with age. Therefore, the apparent educa...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Public opinion quarterly 1999-10, Vol.63 (3), p.347-370
Main Author: Knauper, Barbel
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Age
Age difference
Age Differences
Age groups
Aging
Attitude Measures
Attitudes
Education
Educational Attainment
Error of Measurement
Formal education
Generation differences
Generational differences
History, theory and methodology
Level of education
Logistic regression
Measurement
Meta analysis
Methodological Problems
Methodology
Psychological aspects
Public opinion
Public Opinion Research
Recency effect
Regression analysis
Regression coefficients
Research Responses
Sociology
Statistical significance
Statistics
Studies
Working memory
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Description
Summary:This article addresses the impact of age and education on the emergence of response order effects. Previous research has suggested that response order effects are stronger for respondents with less formal education. Education, however, is negatively correlated with age. Therefore, the apparent educational differences in response order effects might in fact reflect differences in age. A series of meta-analyses of experiments originally conducted by Schuman and Presser and subsequent hierarchical logistic regression analyses demonstrate that there is a statistically reliable relationship between response order effects and age and that this relationship is not explained by education. Age-related differences in response order effects may undermine substantive conclusions about age or generational differences in attitudes.
ISSN:0033-362X
1537-5331
DOI:10.1086/297724