ERIC Number: EJ1137621
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2017-Jan
Pages: 22
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0049-1241
EISSN: N/A
Panel Conditioning in the General Social Survey
Halpern-Manners, Andrew; Warren, John Robert; Torche, Florencia
Sociological Methods & Research, v46 n1 p103-124 Jan 2017
Does participation in one wave of a survey have an effect on respondents' answers to questions in subsequent waves? In this article, we investigate the presence and magnitude of "panel conditioning" effects in one of the most frequently used data sets in the social sciences: the General Social Survey (GSS). Using longitudinal records from the 2006, 2008, and 2010 surveys, we find convincing evidence that at least some GSS items suffer from this form of bias. To rule out the possibility of contamination due to selective attrition and/or unobserved heterogeneity, we strategically exploit a series of between-person comparisons across time-in-survey groups. This methodology, which can be implemented whenever researchers have access to at least three waves of rotating panel data, is described in some detail so as to facilitate future applications in data sets with similar design elements.
Descriptors: Surveys, Participation, Conditioning, Test Wiseness, Social Science Research, Longitudinal Studies, Test Bias, Test Items
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: National Science Foundation (NSF)
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Assessments and Surveys: General Social Survey
Grant or Contract Numbers: SES0647710