Likert-scale measurement artifacts may explain away the null individualism-collectivism findings

Evidence

There have been various reactions to these striking findings. Some scholars concluded that cross-cultural differences in collectivism between North Americans and East Asians did not exist, or, at least, were not empirically warranted (Matsumoto, 1999; Takano & Osaka, 1999). Other researchers who were in favor of the theory maintained that the reviewed findings were not reliable since they primarily relied on Likert scales. These researchers argued that because Likert scales are vulnerable to various biases such as differences in response sets (Chen, Lee, & Stevenson, 1995) and the reference group used when making judgments (Heine, Lehman, Peng, & Greenholtz, 2002), the results from these studies could not be trusted. — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 1603

Categorization

• SEED: An article angle: how measurement instruments (response styles, reference-group anchoring) can manufacture or erase cultural difference — the epistemology of scale construction in cross-cultural research.
• XREF: connects to: Measurement instrument choice drastically changes forgiveness findings — Nyla R. Branscombe and Bertjan Doosje (eds.), Collective Guilt: International…, 1375