‘NO OPINION’-FILTERS: A COGNITIVE PERSPECTIVE

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Abstract
Research on the use of ‘no opinion’-filters suggests that respondents are the less likely to offer a substantive response the more strongly the filter question is worded. A series of experiments is reported that demonstrates that filter questions influence respondents' perception of their task: the more strongly the filter question is worded, the more respondents assume that they will have to answer difficult questions, and that they may not have the required knowledge. Accordingly, filter questions discourage respondents from offering global opinions that they may hold. In line with this assumption, all respondents who reported not having an opinion in response to a filter question, subsequently provided substantive responses on a global opinion question—presumably because the global question asked was less demanding than expected on the basis of the filter. Analyses of these substantive responses indicated that respondents who initially reported not having an opinion differed from respondents who reported having one. Methodological implications of these findings for the use of filter questions and for research on the nature of ‘floating’ are discussed.

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