Yea-Saying, Nay-Saying, and Going to Extremes: Black-White Differences in Response Styles

Abstract

This paper reports an important racial difference in patterns of responding to Likert-type items: blacks are more likely than whites to use the extreme response categories, particularly the positive end of agree-disagree scales. This finding appeared consistently in several large-scale nationally representative surveys of youth. Response style indexes (Agreement, Disagreement, Acquiescence, and Extreme Responding) display ranges of individual differences and cross-time stabilities comparable to commonly used personality measures. Response styles show no consistent differences by sex, and no appreciable correlation with indicators of family socioeconomic level or with educational accomplishments and aspirations. For both races, agreement tendencies are stronger among those in the South, especially in nonmetropolitan areas; however, controlling for geography does little to reduce overall black-white differences. The findings reveal potential pitfalls in dealing with racial differences in survey and personality measures, and illustrate the need for great caution in reporting and interpreting such differences.