Misresponse to reversed and negated items in surveys: A review
Weijters, Bert Baumgartner, Hans
Weijters, Bert
Baumgartner, Hans
Citations
Altmetric:
Publication Type
Journal article with impact factor
Editor
Supervisor
Publication Year
2012
Journal
Journal of Marketing Research
Book
Publication Volume
49
Publication Issue
5
Publication Begin page
737
Publication End page
747
Publication Number of pages
Collections
Abstract
There are important advantages to including reversed items in questionnaires (e.g., control of acquiescence, disruption of nonsubstantive responding, better coverage of the domain of content of a construct), but reversed items can also lead to measurement problems (e.g., low measure reliability, complex factor structures). The authors advocate the continued use of reversed items in measurement instruments but also argue that they should be used with caution. To help researchers improve their scale construction practices, the authors provide a comprehensive review of the literature on reversed and negated items and offer recommendations about their use in questionnaires. The theoretical discussion is supplemented with data on 1330 items from measurement scales that have appeared in Journal of Marketing Research and Journal of Consumer Research.
Research Projects
Organizational Units
Journal Issue
Keywords
Marketing & Sales