Is this ordinal?

[98107]

Hi,

My question in a survey is "What do you belive the general view of experts is regarding the causes of Climate change"

and the answer options are :

[ ] All scientists believe climate change is mostly due to Human contribution?
[ ] Majority of scientists believe climate change is mostly due to Human contribution?
[ ] 50/50 scientists believe humans are to blame?
[ ] Majority of Scientists believe humans are not mostly to blame for climate change?
[ ] All scientist believe humans are not mostly to blame for climate change?

So is this a likert scale as each one is a progressive of the subsequent so is it ordinal? Or is it nominal as there is no specific distance between each statement?

Thank you very much, i am very greatful for any help!

 

[noetsi]

That depends on your understanding of the responses. If you think the responses are ordered, so each level is above (or below) the previous level on some dimension then it is ordinal. I think it is ordered as each level suggests that more scientist believe something. Having said that you should be cautious about your wording. "All" scientist likely don't believe anything and people may be inclinded to chose the middle values (a tendency that is normal in polls anyway) if you use words like all. Also you should avoid terms like 50/50 which may not be clear to respondents. Saying something like "scientist are evenly divided" probably makes this more clear. Terms like "mostly" which are ambiguous will be defined differently by your respondents meaning the answers won't be comparable.

 

[98107]

Thank you once again for your help! Maybe i could hire you to help me permanently? lol

I agree with your concerrn about the wording. I did orginally have what you said, but I got advised to change it.... so I tohught it best not to argue, but i agree you are correct. I think if you agree then I will go with ordianl and apply appropriate tests accordingly.... well as accordingly as I think......

 

[noetsi]

lol this is what I do for a living anyway

I am not sure who advised you, but if you look at books about creating polls the comments I made are the norm. In fact I was basically repeating them. One thing, if you advisor told you to use them, then raise these concerns and do what they tell you You can't win an argument with an advisor, regardless of who is right.