Research Tips

Cross-Cultural Differences in Response Styles

Is your organization planning a research project that involves surveying people in different countries? If so, you should be aware that their answers may not be directly comparable.

For example, commonly-used response scales, such as five- or seven-point scales anchored by “strongly agree” and “strongly disagree” can be interpreted differently in different cultural contexts. In some cultures where conflict and disagreement is avoided, most responses may fall at the positive end of the scale. In cultures that value moderation, responses may cluster in the middle of the scale avoiding the extremes. A common response pattern in other cultures is just the reverse — many respondents use the extremes and avoid the middle of the scale.