“Middle Responding: An Unobtrusive Measure of National Cognitive Ability and Personality”, 2017-07-15 (; similar):
National response style on Likert scales has been associated with national cognitive ability.
- Forced choice of categorical opposites, plus a middle option, also produces uniform response style.
Across 52 nations, preference for the middle option is strongly correlated with national IQ.
Preference for the middle option (and higher national IQ) indicates prevalence of a fluid and adaptable personality.
Preference for categorical responses (and lower national IQ) reveals a rigid and static personality.
Response style—the tendency to provide uniform answers to questionnaire items regardless of item content—is seen as a challenge in psychology and sociology studies. It is an especially serious issue in cross-cultural research as different cultures exhibit different response styles, compromising construct comparability.
Response styles have been associated with a variety of personality and cultural characteristics, including intelligence. This study analyzed new data from 44,096 respondents chosen probabilistically from 52 countries.
At the national level, a specific type of middle responding—avoidance of categorical opposites and preference for an “in-between” option—is exceptionally strongly related to national IQ (r = 0.80–0.91, depending on sample and item type).
In conclusion, (1) middle responding can be a valid proxy measure of national cognitive achievement, and (2) a low national IQ reflects the prevalence of a simplistic and rigid personality, whereas a high IQ reflects a fluid, dynamic, and adaptable personality that seems able to morph in accordance with situational factors.
This finding creates new dilemmas in cross-cultural psychology and provides a new perspective on the way that nations cope with the challenges of the modern world.