Reversing scale items produces contraries that do not exhaust all possible opinions

Evidence

When there is a significant number of cases in the gray zone, using the correlation coefficient as a measure of similarity can wildly underestimate discrepancies between measures. For example, using the Polity democracy data, if one takes the cases at extreme values (i.e., − 10 and 10) as given, which consist of 23 percent of the data, and then replaces all the observations in between with independent, random, and uniform data, one still gets a correlation coefficient of almost 0.50. In short, there can exist extensive disagreement between measures in the gray zone and one can still get quite respectable correlation coefficients. — Gary Goertz, Social Science Concepts and Measurement, 1100 (#complicates, via linked claim)

But in everyday life, opinions always come in a form: flippant, ironic, anxious, determined, abstractly distant, earnest, engaged, effortful. And they always come in a context — a bar, a charity group, a family, a picket — that implicitly invites or discourages debate. The survey 1s itself a context, that helps create the kind of person who will cooperatively answer a stranger’s questions and not demand dialogue. — Nina Eliasoph, Avoiding politics, 164 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Attitude scale items resist perfect psychological reversal — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology: Key Readings, 587; Opinions take shape only within contexts that invite or discourage debate — Nina Eliasoph, Avoiding politics: how Americans…, 164; The midpoint of a scale is rarely the real crossover for a concept — Gary Goertz, Social Science Concepts and Measurement, 794 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• High correlations can conceal total disagreement in the middle of a scale. #complicates (0.75) — Gary Goertz, Social Science Concepts and Measurement, 1100
• Opinions take shape only within contexts that invite or discourage debate #complicates (0.72) — Nina Eliasoph, Avoiding politics, 164