Declining to choose a mapping is itself a conceptual choice

Evidence

Not to decide, and to use a linear mapping, is to decide. To dichotomize is also to make a semantic transformation. The issues outlined and discussed in this chapter cannot be avoided. A major goal of this chapter has been to open up these decisions to discussion and provide a methodology for comparing and contrasting alternative decisions. — Gary Goertz, Social Science Concepts and Measurement, 751

Categorization

• XREF: Echoes the social-science theme that operationalization choices are theory-laden and never neutral, e.g. measurement categories constructing the phenomena they measure.
• APHORISMS: A generalizable maxim: abstention is a decision too, and defaulting to the metric of least resistance is still a commitment.