The Impact of "No Opinion" Response Options on Data Quality: Non-Attitude Reduction or an Invitation to Satisfice?*

Abstract

According to many seasoned survey researchers, offering a no-opinion option should reduce the pressure to give substantive responses felt by respondents who have no true opinions. By contrast, the survey satisficing perspective suggests that no-opinion options may discourage some respondents from doing the cognitive work necessary to report the true opinions they do have. We address these arguments using data from nine experiments carried out in three household surveys. Attraction to no-opinion options was found to be greatest among respondents lowest in cognitive skills (as measured by educational attainment), among respondents answering secretly instead of orally, for questions asked later in a survey, and among respondents who devoted little effort to the reporting process. The quality of attitude reports obtained (as measured by over-time consistency and responsiveness to a question manipulation) was not compromised by the omission of no-opinion options. These results suggest that inclusion of no-opinion options in attitude measures may not enhance data quality and instead may preclude measurement of some meaningful opinions.

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JON A. KROSNICK is professor of psychology and political science at Ohio State University and University Fellow at Resources for the Future. ALLYSON L. HOLBROOK is assistant professor of public administration and psychology at the University of Illinois at Chicago. RICHARD T. CARSON is professor of economics at the University of California at San Diego and Research Director for International Environmental Policy at the UC Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation. W. MICHAEL HANEMANN is professor of agricultural and resource economics at the University of California, Berkeley, and University Fellow at Resources for the Future. RAYMOND J. KOPP is Senior Fellow and Vice President for Programs at Resources for the Future. ROBERT CAMERON MITCHELL is professor of geography at Clark University. STANLEY PRESSER is professor of sociology at the University of Maryland. PAUL A. RUUD is professor of economics at the University of California, Berkeley. V. KERRY SMITH is university distinguished professor of agricultural and resource economics at North Carolina State University and University Fellow at Resources for the Future. MELANIE C. GREEN is assistant professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. MICHAEL CONAWAY is project coordinator for the Capstone Poll at the Institute for Social Science Research at the University of Alabama. This research was funded partly by the Damage Assessment Office of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration as part of a natural resource damage assessment under contract 50-DGNC-1-00007. All opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The authors wish to thank Catherine Heaney for very helpful comments on the manuscript and Kerry Martin for her work throughout the project. Correspondence should be addressed to Jon A. Krosnick, Department of Psychology, The Ohio State University, 1885 Neil Avenue, Columbus, OH 43210 (email: ).