The hood mysticism scale: Does the presence of a neutral response-item affect response style

The widely used Hood Mysticism Scale (1975) was administered to one of two groups of college students in its original version and a modified version w ithout the option of responding with "?" to an item. Scoring of the scale a ssigns an intermediate value to the "?'' response, suggesting this response implies a meaning on the item somewhere between "probably true" and "proba bly not true." Omitting this response option requires respondents to make a forced-choice answer, either to agree or to disagree with a statement and eliminates the middle ground. It as hypothesized that, if the response refl ects a neutral attitude, then randomly selected groups administered the sca le with or without the option should show no difference in overall means. A n intact group of 23 advanced psychology students achieved a mean of 114.4 (SD=20.4) on the original mysticism scale, while 25 advanced psychology stu dents in a second intact group had a mean of 113.3 (SD=17.1) on the modifie d version. This difference was not significant and supported the hypothesis that the scales were equivalent. Advantages of the modification and implic ations for interpretation of the "?" response are discussed.