People Use Scales Differently: Dealing with Survey Response Styles in Cross-Cultural Research

Response styles (RS) refer to the systematic tendency to respond to questionnaires on some basis other than the target construct. On the one hand, they may pose threat to the validity of cross-cultural surveys (i.e., as nuisance); and on the other, they may indicate genuine cultural differences (i.e., as substance). For either case, researchers dealing with cultural comparisons should be well aware of RS effects and available means to handle them. This article aims to provide an integrated overview of various RS under the same theoretical roof of a general response style framework. It then further explains how RS are associated with interpretation of survey results at both individual and culture levels. In the end, the article outlines specific steps and methods that practitioners can employ to deal with RS in cross-cultural research.