Survey items fail to capture respondents’ own lived experience of inner conflict and racism

Evidence

At present, we know little about self-perceptions of inner conflict, ambivalence, and one’s own racism. Most survey researchers infer such dimensions from responses to closed-ended items, and have little faith in people’s own professions about such matters. But the researchers’ closed-ended items often give little insight into the respondent’s own phenomenology. — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 2203

Categorization

• SEED: A method-critique essay on how closed-ended survey items systematically erase respondents’ own phenomenology across many domains, not just prejudice.
• DEFINE: Distinguishes researcher-inferred constructs from respondent phenomenology.