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Consistency Example


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Consistency Example



Questions 1 Ð 3 are consistent. The rating scales have 5 points with the same anchors. The scale goes from Very Satisfied to Very Unsatisfied. Question 4 is inconsistent. The rating scale for Question 4 is reversed. It still has 5 points, but the anchors are reversed. This scale goes from Very Unsatisfied to Very Satisfied.

This inconsistency can have two outcomes:

  1. The respondents will get confused.
  2. The respondents may not notice the inconsistency.
Some practitioners recommend the use of reversed scales to see if respondents are paying attention. However, this is unadvisable and at the end will bring error to the data collected.