{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.019134178426213823, 'fraction_numerical': 0.006218607988519493, 'mean_word_length': 4.890140845070422, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 3, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Book Review: Surveying Subjective Phenomena

In 1980 the Committee on National Statistics of the National Academy of Sciences convened a Panel on Survey Measurement of Subjective Phenomena. The impetus for this panel was concerns that had been expressed about trend measurements of public confidence in national institutions and attitudes toward science. The panel worked for several years and the two-volume report of their deliberations plus the special papers prepared for the panel were published early in 1985. The purpose of this review is to highlight aspects of the more than 1100-page report that may be of particular interest to market researchers. As with most such committee efforts, the content and quality of work in Surveying Subjective Phenomena are highly variable. Volume I has five major parts: I, Background; II, Uses and Abuses of Surveys; III, Measurement Issues; IV, The Survey Interview Process; and V, Improving Survey Measurement of Subjective Phenomena. Part III in Volume I and Parts III and IV in Volume II have the most useful content, though even here the major value of the two volumes is that they provide a useful summary of past research. Little can be classified as path-breaking. Nevertheless, the volumes are an excellent source of information for students and unsophisticated users of research and they provide detailed and sensible guidelines for persons who publish survey results for advocacy purposes. The panel soon recognized that it was difficult to define "subjective phenomena" and much of the work in this book makes no clear distinction. Thus, though attitudes toward a brand or a supplier of services are clearly subjective, questions about past purchase behavior or intentions also may be subjective depending on the specific methods used. Many readers will be surprised that even questions on ethnicity, employment, and housing attributes are subjective and depend on how the question is asked and perceived, but this is well demonstrated in Chapters 4 through 6 of Volume II. A major theme expressed by Schuman and Turner (Ch. 5, Vol. I; Ch. 7, Vol. II) is that the context in which a question is asked may influence response. This effect is most likely to occur if the question being asked is general and amorphous rather than specific. (Questions on confidence in government are general, questions about pending legislation specific). An effect is also more likely if the topic is nonsalient and if the previous question is in some way related. Though some of these findings are not new and some have been reported by Schuman and Presser (1981), the number and quality of the examples used are impressive. The major consequence is that trend results may vary even if the question is identical but the context changes. Another important theme-whether the respondent has anattitude on an issue-is well discussed by Smith (mainly in Ch. 8, Vol. 11). The term "nonattitude" coined by P. Converse refers to respondents who have never thought of an issue prior to the survey, but who give an answer rather than saying they do not know or admitting ignorance. Smith gives a wide range of examples that suggest nonattitudes are common and concludes by proposing procedures used earlier by Gallup, including knowledge and intensity questions, to differentiate between considered responses and nonattitudes. This is an important issue for measurement of buying intentions and brand attitudes because the researcher must distinguish respondents who have and do not have attitudes. A third major topic in the two volumes is the use of analytic methods and models for measuring the effects of alternative survey procedures. In Chapter 6 of Volume I and Chapter 12 of Volume II, Duncan continues his championing of Rasch models for analyzing surveys. He writes clearly and persuasively and shows how these models can be used to distinguish whether a scale is unior multidimensional. Readers unfamiliar with Rasch models will find the discussion interesting, but it is not clear yet that this procedure will have wide applicability in marketing research. Researchers have known of this method for more than two decades and its slow adoption