| Abstract: | In a series of articles, Mondak and colleagues argue that theconventional way of measuring political knowledge in surveysis flawed. Personality related "propensity to guess" underestimatesthe level of political knowledge in the population and distortsestimates of between group differences, when a DK alternativeis offered. This has led Mondak to recommend the use of closed-endeditems on which DKs are not explicitly offered, following bestpractice in the field of educational testing. In this article,we present the results of an experimental study which callsinto question the wisdom of this approach. Our results showlittle evidence of partial knowledge concealed within DK responses;when people who initially select a DK alternative are subsequentlyasked to provide a "best guess," they fare statistically nobetter than chance. We conclude that opinion researchers shouldbe cautious about adopting Mondak's recommendations for thedesign of political knowledge items in surveys. Received for publication February 22, 2005. Revision received October 19, 2006. Accepted for publication October 25, 2006. |
