Monitoring Attitudes Over Time: Real Change or the Result of Repeated Interviewing?

Abstract

Panel data are often used to study change and stability in social patterns. However, repeated interviewing may affect respondents’ attitudes in a panel study by triggering reflection processes on the surveyed topics (cognitive stimulus hypothesis). Using data from a survey experiment within a probability-based and a nonprobability panel in Germany, we investigate change—and the mechanisms underlying change—in respondents’ abortion attitudes over six panel waves. The experiment manipulated the frequency of receiving identical attitude questions. We estimate multiple-group and longitudinal structural equation models to differentiate change in the measurement of abortion attitudes from “real” attitude change. Results show that repeatedly administering the same abortion questions increases the reliability of respondents’ reported attitudes and the stability of their latent attitudes toward abortion. However, we find no evidence of an increase in attitude certainty and knowledgeability on abortion and only tentative evidence of improved response behavior (increased attitude reliability) due to general survey experience.