Question wording and historical context make cross-year race-attitude survey items non-comparable.
Evidence
Given evidence that question wording significantly affects survey answers (see, e.g., Gaines et al., 2007) flipping the default between 1960 and 1962 is certainly not ideal (agreement with the pre-1962 statement would generally signal opposition to integration, whereas agreement with the 1962 and later versions would signal support of integration). 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: This suggests expressed survey attitudes themselves shift with the political frame — open question whether threat is latent and stable or itself frame-dependent.
- XREF: connects to: Historical context changes the content but not the structure of prejudice — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice: Fifty Years…, 2007; Cross-national trust gaps reflect question-framing differences, not real trust levels. — Russell Hardin, Trust and Trustworthiness, 797; Precisely articulated survey questions contaminate respondents’ natural answers (+4 more)
Broader Connections
- Historical context changes the content but not the structure of prejudice
#qualifies(0.75) — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice, 2007 - Precisely articulated survey questions contaminate respondents’ natural answers
#corroborates(0.75) - Cross-national trust gaps reflect question-framing differences, not real trust levels.
#exemplifies(0.72) — Russell Hardin, Trust and Trustworthiness, 797 - The RWA scale’s cross-cultural uniformity may vanish with broader sampling
#expands(0.72)