THE LIKERT SCALE REVISITED - AN ALTERNATE VERSION

This study examined the effect of alternative scale formats on reporti ng of intensity of attitudes on Likert scales of agreement. A standard one-stage format and an alternate two-stage format were tested in thr ee separate studies on samples of university students in three countri es. In general, the two-stage format generated the greatest percentage of extreme-position (i.e. most intense) responses across scales. A te st of predictive ability showed that the two-stage format was a better predictor of product preferences. Underlying data structures did not differ much between the two.