Simple rating scale formats: exploring extreme response

The usual simple rating scale purposts to maesure direcation (important/unimportant, effective/ineffective, etc.) and intensity (very, somewhat) of attitude or opinion in a single assessment. Thus, direction and intensity components may be confounded in simple rating scales, which can increase opportunities for form-related biases such as central tendency error. This study examines response tendencies in simple rating scales using the traditional approach and an alternative 2-stage approach, both designed to asses the performance of a major charitable organization in the US. Using a measure of the proportion of extreme responses at both the individual scale and respondent levels, results suggest that simple rating scales as generally used tend to underestimate extreme viewpoints held by poeple and may be subject to a central tendency form-related error. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]