Study
The neutral midpoint in rating scales
What the middle option on a rating scale actually captures, and what offering it does to the data.
The neutral midpoint absorbs several different things at once: genuine indifference, ambivalence, having no view, and simple avoidance. Treating them as one category distorts the scale. The paper separates them and sets out when a midpoint earns its place and when it should be left out. With Stefania Capecchi, University of Naples Federico II.
Part of Instrument development and validation Measurement comparability
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Published as
- 2025Neither agree nor disagree: use and misuse of the neutral response category in Likert-type scalesMetron 83(1), 111-140Article