Culture and Survey Response

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Culture and Survey Response

• Lecture Week 12 Conceptual Issues
• By Shirley Cheng Adam Branson

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Week 12 Discussion Outline

• Introduction
• Cross-Culture background
• Paper Review
• General Discussion
• Aggregate the readings

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Warm up discussion

• What is Culture?
• What is the focus of cross-cultural research?
• What is the general research question?
• Cross-cultural comparison of survey response
  behaviors
• Why do we suspect cultural difference?
• Cultural Dimensions
• Cultural Orientation
• Cultural Subgroups
• Impacts various aspects of survey response
  behaviors

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The readings

• Survey compliance and nonresponse
• Cialdini et al. (1999 also Johnson et al. 2002)
• Response style
• Johnson et al. (2005)
• Context effect Response scale effect
• Haberstroh et al. (2002) Schwarz (2003)
• Social desirability responding
• Lalwani et al. (2006 also Johnson and van de
  Vijver 2002)

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Cialdini et al. (1999)

• Compliance With a Request in Two Cultures
• What cultural dimensions are studied?
• What are their findings?
• Four Hypothesis Four Results
• What are six social influence principles?
• What are SP and C/C?
• What are the effects Social Proof (SP) and
  Commitment/Consistency (C/C) on I/C
• How would reciprocity, authority, scarcity, and
  liking affect compliance?

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Cialdini et al. (1999)

• Does it matter whether culture is
  self-identified, proxy reported, or determined by
  a Cultural Orientation Scale (COS) or measure?
  (Handout)
• Is it measuring individual respondents, groups of
  respondents, both?
• How would we use other survey modes to conduct a
  COS?
• Is it a reliable measure of cultural orientation?
• How would cultural features of the interviewer
  influence compliance?
• Questions and Critiques
• Is it a problem if the researchers only conducted
  the follow-up on U.S. students?
• What if it is not Coca-Cola? Less well-known? A
  firm w/ neg. or neut. connotations?
• Does it matter that Poland is/was a country
  undergoing transition? Would there be other
  results if we revisit the respondents later?
• Is there something different or shared about
  college students in Poland and the U.S.?
• Was methodology sound?

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Cialdini et al. (1999)

• The principles of SP and C/C appear important
  determinants of compliance decisions in each
  society. SP has greater effect on collectivists
  and C/C has greater effect on individualists.
• In a collectivistic society, how one behaved in
  the past may not be an accurate reflection of
  ones own preferences.
• Priming procedures not only activate focal
  constructs in consciousness, but also deactivate
  competing or incompatible constructs.

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Johnson et al. (2002)

• Culture and Survey Nonresponse
• What cultural dimensions are studied?
• What are their findings?
• What are the differences in culture based on
  non-controllable factors, like race or ethnicity,
  and controllable factors such as nationality?
  Will surveys capture biracial, multinational,
  trilingual respondents?
• If it is important for non-response that there
  has been a greater attrition on panel data
  collection from certain races and ethnicities,
  what does this imply for cross-cultural response?
• What are the cultural orientations we can
  unpackage?

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Johnson et al. (2002) contd.

• What are implications of
• I/C
• Power Distance
• Vertical or Horizontal Relationships
• Cultural Differences in Context Requirements
• Nonverbal Behavior
• Self-Disclosure
• Minority Oppression and Opposition
• Social Distance
• Helping Behavior
• on survey response?
• Do these items interaction with each other
  amplify or weaken the cross-cultural variability
  presented in survey response like they do in
  nonresponse?

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Future Research Ideas from Cialdini et al. (2002)
and Johnson et al. (2002)

• Cialdini (2002)
• Is willingness to comply enough or should we
  measure actual survey taking (does anonymity
  matter).
• Examine impact of existing I/C orientation on the
  effectiveness of C/C and SP principles (explore
  foot in door and long or short lists).
• Examine how interpersonal relations, such as
  hierarchical authority or social distance impact
  compliance with a request (what happens if we
  know the interviewer).
• Johnson et al. (2002)
• We must investigate of limits of residence, race,
  and ethnic status measures as proxies of culture.
• We must explore cultural orientations, such as
  degree respondent consider themselves an I/C.
• We must see if it is possible to map these
  cultural orientations onto other constructs.

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Johnson et al. (2005)

• -Cross-cultural difference in response style
• Two forms of response style
• Extreme responding
• Acquiescent responding
• Hofstedes four cultural dimensions

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Johnson et al. (2005)

• Power distance
• What are the findings
• Acquiescent responding
• Extreme responding
• What is the rationale? Are you surprised with the
  findings?

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Johnson et al. (2005)

• Uncertainty avoidance
• What are the findings
• Acquiescent responding
• Extreme responding
• What is the rationale?

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Johnson et al. (2005)

• Individualism
• What are the findings
• Acquiescent responding
• Extreme responding
• What is the rationale?

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Johnson et al. (2005)

• Masculinity
• What are the findings
• Acquiescent responding
• Extreme responding
• What is the rationale?

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Likelihood of Cultures to Exhibit Response Styles
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Discussion

• We need more specific conceptualization of the
  effect of each cultural dimension.
• How is extreme response operationalized? How do
  we verify responses?
• How are cultural dimensions operationalized? (see
  Table 1, pg 269)
• Aggregate (national) level vs. Individual level

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• Lets take a short break

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Schwarz (2003)

• -Cross cultural difference in scale frequency
  effect
• Recap What is the scale frequency effect?
• What is the basis of this effect?
• It occurs when memory of the behavior is ambiguous

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Schwarz (2003)

• Memory of others behavior
• What is the cultural difference?
• Findings
• Chinese students reports of public behaviors
  were virtually unaffected by scale range.
  (p.591)

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Schwarz (2003)

• The illusionary cultural difference
• Behavioral frequency () of observable behaviors
• Is the use of proxy report better in a
  collectivist culture?

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Schwarz (2003)

• -Cross cultural difference in question order
  effect
• Recap Question order effect?
• What is the basis of this effect?
• Conversational norms

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Schwarz (2003)

• Correlation of marital satisfaction(M) and life
  satisfaction (L)
• What is the explanation of this effect?

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Haberstroh et al. (2002)

• Correlations of academic satisfaction (A) and
  general life satisfaction (L)

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Haberstroh et al. (2002)

• Illusionary cultural difference in values of
  achievement
• Germans value academic achievement more than
  Chinese.
• Significance of the priming study
• Differential sensitivity towards context

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Interdependence Priming

• Circle the Pronouns
• We go to the city often. Our anticipation fills
  us as we see the skyscrapers come into view. We
  allow ourselves to explore every corner, never
  letting an attraction escape us. Our voices fill
  the air and street. We see all the sights, we
  window shop, and everywhere we go we see our
  reflections looking back at us in the glass of a
  hundred windows. At nightfall we linger, our
  time in the city almost over. When finally we
  must leave, we do so knowing that we will soon
  return. The city belongs to us.

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Haberstroh et al. (2002)

• Discussion
• Is it better to prime respondents with one either
  independent or interdependent construal before
  any question?
• How to avoid illusionary cultural difference in
  survey results?

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Lalwani et al. (2006)

• Relation Between Cultural Orientation and
  Socially Desirable Responding (SDR)
• What cultural dimensions are studied?
• What is SDR? (Handouts) Does it introduce bias?
  How?
• Systematic tendency to give answers making the
  respondent look good.
• Would it manifest if we had proxy respondents?
  Does anonymity matter if it is SDE or SDD? How
  does SDR introduce systematic or asystematic
  distortion?
• What are the findings?
• Four Studies
• How do I/C vary w.r.t. goals, values, etc.? How
  does it tie to different types of SDR?
• Do HC actively or passively seek social
  acceptance?

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Lalwani et al. (2006) cont.

• Are impression management (IM) and self deceptive
  enhancement conscious or unconscious forms of
  response editing?
• How do I/C cultural categories vary horizontally
  and vertically? How can we measure and what is
  the reliability?
• 16-Item Triandis Gelfands (1995) Cultural
  Orientation Scale
• You and your friends decided to spontaneously go
  out to dinner. What do you think is the best way
  to handle the bill? (answer)
• 1) Split it equally without regard to what is
  ordered
• 2) Split it according to how much each person
  makes
• 3) The group leader pays the bill or decides how
  to split it
• 4) Compute each persons charge according to what
  the person ordered

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Lalwani et al. (2006) cont.

• Lalwani
• Response tendencies of people with
  individualistic vs. collectivistic cultural
  orientations respond to two distinct SDR.
• CHC ? IM (but VC does not)
• IHI ? SDE (but VI does not)
• Is that VC and VI do not have any social
  desirability responding?
• According to the article, and your own intuition,
  what is the fundamental factor that underlies the
  different ways of SDR?
• What are some HC, VC, HI, VI traits?
• HC particularly oriented toward sociability and
  maintaining good relationships gt IM
• HI self-reliance, independence, capability, and
  self directness gt SDE
• What could possibly be socially desirable in VC
  and VI cultures?

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• How does SDR scale measurement effect cultures?
• Are there cultural differences in SDR if we
  examine items on a yes/no, true/false or
  Likert-Type scale?
• Does it bring about SDR if we seek affirmation or
  negation? Can SDR depend on if we use statements
  or questions?
• Key Positive Negative
• True I am a saint I am not a sinner
• False I am not a saint I am a sinner
• Yes Are you a saint Are you not a sinner?
• No Are you not a saint? Are you a sinner?

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Johnson and van de Vijver (2002)

• Social Desirability in Cross-Cultural Research
• SD is a universal concept, but there is the
  possible presence of culture-specific factors. Do
  you agree?
• Do you agree that correction for SD, on occasion,
  will decrease validity of cross-cultural
  comparisons.
• If SD results from question and administration
  characteristics, how are different individuals or
  cultures triggered or primed?
• W.R.T. admin., is SD a feature of survey
  questions, mode, social distance or difference
  with the interviewer.
• W.R.T. personal, is SD a response style (keying),
  a personality characteristic?
• Can we deactivate SD?

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Johnson and van de Vijver (2002)

• What is the purpose of Lie Scale, Eysenk
  Personality Questionnaire and Marlow-Crowne Scale
  measures?
• Are some tools better assessments of one culture
  than another culture?
• Are the tools consistent with one another inside
  a culture?
• Treating SD as a person characteristic
• Will qs that do not activate cultural
  perceptions in one culture be processed without
  any SDR? What does this mean if it activates
  cultural perceptions in only one culture of a
  cross cultural comparison?
• Is individualism in culture A the same as
  individualism in culture B? Collectivism?

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Future Research ideas from Lalwani et al. and
Johnson and Van De Vijver

• Lalwani et al.
• If SDR is a major cause of research bias, what
  does it mean for surveying field?
• We need to look at ways to address the effects of
  SDR. Will C orientation only manifest itself
  with C priming or surroundings?
• What linkages exist between other aspects of
  culture and SDR? What possibilities can be read
  into the study of Japanese that choose to study
  in Canada? Is it groups of people (a culture) or
  individual persons (parts of a culture) that
  matter?
• Johnson and van de Vijver
• There is a need for theories explaining cultural
  differences and SD tendencies along with methods
  that measure and control during cross-cultural
  research. Why?
• There is no simple safeguard against SD, but it
  can often be measured or bias techniques can be
  used to evaluate if score differences are due to
  questions or culture.
• SD shows systematic cross-cultural difference
  that are negatively related to affluence of
  countries and to social power of individuals.
  Also, individuals from more affluent countries
  show lower SD scores. Furthermore, there is a
  strong relationship between SD and GNP (incl
  educational level and personal income).
• Is it that cultural value systems (e.g. C/I or
  the need for affiliation, conformity, approval
  and other psych. Constructs) are related to SD.

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What more should we learn in this topic?
Haberstroh et al. (2002)
Haberstroh et al. (2002)
Schwarz (2003)
Johnson et al. (2005)
Johnson and van de Vijver (2002) Lalwani et al.
(2006)
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General Discussion

• Any cross-cultural difference in mode effect?
• For examples, face-to-face interviews (vs. other
  modes) induces more compliance among
  collectivists, but such difference is smaller
  among individualist?
• What other cultural dimensions might effect
  survey response?

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General Discussion

• Three ways to investigate cultural differences
• Aggregate level (Johnson et al. 2002)
• Individual level (Cialdini et al. 1999)
• Within individual (intercultural priming
  Haberstroh 2002)
• Pros and Cons of each?
• Is culture quantifiable?

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Thanks!