Asking Questions - The Definitive Guide To Questionnaire Design ...

122 ASKING QUESTIONS
times will you eat pizza in the next month?”). In practice, attitude
questions are mostly about beliefs and evaluations. Questions that
try to measure the action component are discussed later in this
chapter.
Different Attitude Components Require Different Questions
It is generally believed and empirically supported that there is a
strain toward consistency among these attitudinal components.
People are less likely to believe something derogatory about something
they like and are in favor of, and they do not usually act in
support of things they disapprove of. The belief that these three
components are consistent is sometimes so strong as to lead researchers
to neglect assessing the components independently. They
assume they can infer other components of the attitude by measuring
only one component. For example, respondents who believe a
particular product has positive attributes will be favorably disposed
to the product and will buy it. Similarly, someone who votes for a
particular candidate knows something about the candidate and
generally has a favorable view of that candidate. Unfortunately,
attitudes are often much more complex and differentiated. Even
though components of the attitude correlate in general ways, the
components are still different. It is particularly difficult to make
inferences about action from simple measurements of the cognitive
and evaluative components of the attitude because factors other
than the attitude affect action.
Even when you are measuring a single component, such as the
evaluative component, using different evaluative words may produce
different results. Similar (if not synonymous) terms that indicate
a positive orientation toward an attitude object may have
somewhat different connotations and yield different responses. For
example, the terms “approve and disapprove” and “like and dislike”
are frequently used in attitude questions, but little attention is paid
to possible differences in implication between them. An empirical