Pre-1962 survey phrasing ambiguously mapped opposition to integration.
Evidence
Moreover, especially in 1956, it is not clear whether the government in Washington “staying out” of the question would signal opposition or support of school integration. In reaction to Brown, U.S. Senators and Representatives from the South drafted the Southern Manifesto in March of 1956, calling on all possible legal action to circumvent Brown. It is thus quite possible that Southerners especially could interpret Washington “staying out” as in fact allowing Brown to progress. — Ilyana Kuziemko and Ebonya Washington, Why Did the Democrats Lose the South?…, 1330
Categorization
- QUESTION: Raises the worry that measured Southern racial conservatism in 1956 is contaminated by strategic ambiguity — matters for whether the reader can trust baseline threat readings.
- XREF: connects to: Confusing test items bias respondents toward agreement, not disagreement — Bob Altemeyer, The Authoritarian Specter, 809; Identical survey responses can stem from opposite interpretations — Bob Altemeyer, The Authoritarian Specter, 3977; Uninformed respondents degrade survey reliability by acquiescing indiscriminately — Bob Altemeyer, The Authoritarian Specter, 818 (+6 more)
Broader Connections
- Vague survey wording can make racial prejudice undetectable in response data
#expands(0.90) - Identical survey responses can stem from opposite interpretations
#expands(0.85) — Bob Altemeyer, The Authoritarian Specter, 3977 - Question wording and historical context make cross-year race-attitude survey items non-comparable.
#expands(0.85) — Ilyana Kuziemko and Ebonya Washington, Why Did the Democrats Lose the South?…, 1330 - Uninformed respondents degrade survey reliability by acquiescing indiscriminately
#corroborates(0.80) — Bob Altemeyer, The Authoritarian Specter, 818 - Survey research is vulnerable to systematic measurement errors that skew results
#exemplifies(0.80) - Confusing test items bias respondents toward agreement, not disagreement
#corroborates(0.75) — Bob Altemeyer, The Authoritarian Specter, 809 - Survey correlations between prejudice scales may be inflated by response style, not real relationships
#corroborates(0.75) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 1044 - Skipping a negative word flips respondents’ recorded opinions to the opposite
#exemplifies(0.75) — Bob Altemeyer, The Authoritarian Specter, 3989 - Survey measures of generalized trust are misdescribed artifacts of vague questions.
#corroborates(0.70) — Russell Hardin, Trust and Trustworthiness, 317