Effects of Language and Meaningfulness on the Use of Extreme Response Style by Spanish-English Bilinguals

Response style, specifically the tendency to use response categories that are distant from the midpoint of a Likert-type scale, has been linked to culture and to the personal meaningfulness of the item. In this study, 58 Spanish-English bilinguals completed two gender role attitudes scales—the Attitudes Toward Women Scale (AWS) and the Historic-Sociocultural Premises Scale (HSCP)—with items randomly assigned to be presented in English or Spanish. The HSCP was rated as more meaningful, and participants used more extreme categories in Spanish. Participants rated items on the AWS as more meaningful and used more extreme categories when items were presented in their first language; meaningfulness did not completely account for the latter effect. The results suggest that both language and meaningfulness affect response style. Response style is important not only as a confounding variable in crosscultural research but as an indicator of personal meaning and other culturally related phenomena such as language.