'DON'T KNOW' ANSWERS IN CROSS-NATIONAL SURVEYS

In: Public opinion quarterly: journal of the American Association for Public Opinion Research, Band 34, Heft 1, S. 126-129

Abstract

Attention is drawn to the danger of false conclusions resulting from comparisons of the marginals obtained in PO surveys in diff countries in general, since there are specific cultural variations in the readiness to admit lack of knowledge or opinion about the subject of the question. Data are drawn from a cross-nat'l survey sponsored by the European Coordination Center for Res & Documentation in Soc Sci's, Vienna, in 1964 & 1965, published under the title 'Images of a Disarmed World.' It is found that the Norwegians are clearly much more inclined to give wrong answers rather than admit ignorance, than are the Frenchmen or the Poles, irrespective of the question asked. The Frenchmen & the Poles both show a tendency to give the 'don't know' response. 2 conclusions are deduced from this: (1) The % of correct responses given by the Norwegian public may appear unduly high when compared with the French & the Polish samples. Some Norwegian R's who did not know the correct answers probably increased the number of 'hits' using the heads-tails method, instead of admitting their ignorance. (2) The same response style may be operative not only on knowledge questions but on opinion questions as well. To the extent that this is true, comparisons of opinion marginals among the 3 countries will also be distorted. It is observed that diff countries have diff response styles & that the diff's may be even greater in countries whose cultures differ more widely. In the case of extreme diff's in response styles, it might be advisable to abandon comparisons of marginals for the whole pop in favor of an analysis of responses of comparable groups. 2 Tables. M. Maxfield.