The use of telephone dials as attitude scales: A laboratory experiment

Some researchers have expressed concern that the lack of a physical representation of an attitude scale in telephone surveys hinders repondents in answering attitude questions. One suggested remedy is to ask respondents to refer to their phone dial (a 9-point scale) in answering such questions. The method has been shown to be easily administered and enjoyable to respondents. However, additional concerns have been raised as to whether the use of telephone dials as scales produces different responses than would be obtained using printed scales on opinion cards or in self-administered questionnaires. This paper reports on the results of an experiment designed to address these concerns. The authors found that the use of telephone dials (as compared to other scales) produced no significant difference in response.