Low public awareness does not make a discrimination item invalid

Evidence

Participants generally understood the intention of each item, although they may have limited knowledge or experience with certain incidents. For example, some participants said they were unfamiliar with government surveillance of Muslim communities or difficulties around obtaining approval to establish a Muslim cemetery. These findings were expected as some items are dependent on the level of awareness or engagement in Muslim American affairs, either through consumption of news or involvement in mosque activities. However, this feedback did not result in these items being dropped, as the items were clearly understood, and given the well documented challenges to mosques and Muslim cemeteries these items are relevant for instruments measuring anti-Muslim discrimination in the United States. — Naheed Ahmed, Measurement of Perceived Interpersonal…, 59

Categorization

• DEFINE: Draws the line between item comprehension (still intact) and item relevance (justified by external documentation), two separate validity criteria.
• QUESTION: How much does respondent ignorance of surveillance and cemetery disputes bias prevalence estimates — underreporting, or simply noise?