Identical survey responses can stem from opposite interpretations

Evidence

Right off the bat, we have to realize that words inevitably mean different things, evoke different meanings, to different people. One person might give a +3 to item 5, and be thinking of a “mighty leader” like Hitler. Another might give the same response but be thinking of Mahatma Gandhi. As far as that item goes, both respondents would look equally authoritarian. — Bob Altemeyer, The Authoritarian Specter, 3977

Categorization

• DEFINE: Establishes the foundational measurement problem: survey items carry irreducible interpretive ambiguity across respondents.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Bob Altemeyer, The Authoritarian Specter, 3977
• XREF: connects to: Pre-1962 survey phrasing ambiguously mapped opposition to integration. — Ilyana Kuziemko and Ebonya Washington, Why Did the Democrats Lose the South?…, 1330; The same ballot measure can be summarized in rival framing accounts — Henry M. Hart, Jr. and Albert M. Sacks, The Legal Process: Basic Problems in…, 3367; Survey questions deemed comparable still shift meaning across waves — Ilyana Kuziemko and Ebonya Washington, Why Did the Democrats Lose the South?…, 1325 (+1 more)