Ensuring cross-cultural data comparability by means of anchoring vignettes in heterogeneous refugee samples

BACKGROUND

Configural, metric, and scalar measurement invariance have been indicators of bias-free statistical cross-group comparisons, although they are difficult to verify in the data. Low comparability of translated questionnaires or the different understanding of response formats by respondents might lead to rejection of measurement invariance and point to comparability bias in multi-language surveys. Anchoring vignettes have been proposed as a method to control for the different understanding of response categories by respondents (the latter is referred to as differential item functioning related to response categories or rating scales: RC-DIF). We evaluate the question whether the cross-cultural comparability of data can be assured by means of anchoring vignettes or by considering socio-demographic heterogeneity as an alternative approach.

METHODS

We used the Health System Responsiveness (HSR) questionnaire and collected survey data in English (n = 183) and Arabic (n = 121) in a random sample of refugees in the third largest German federal state. We conducted multiple-group Confirmatory Factor Analyses (MGCFA) to analyse measurement invariance and compared the results when 1) using rescaled data on the basis of anchoring vignettes (non-parametric approach), 2) including information on RC-DIF from the analyses with anchoring vignettes as covariates (parametric approach) and 3) including socio-demographic covariates.

RESULTS

For the HSR, every level of measurement invariance between the Arabic and English languages was rejected. Implementing rescaling or modelling on the basis of anchoring vignettes provided superior results over the initial MGCFA analysis, since configural, metric and - for ordered categorical analyses-scalar invariance could not be rejected. A consideration of socio-demographic variables did not show such an improvement.

CONCLUSIONS

Surveys may consider anchoring vignettes as a method to assess cross-cultural comparability of data, whereas socio-demographic variables cannot be used to improve data comparability as a standalone method. More research on the efficient implementation of anchoring vignettes and further development of methods to incorporate them when modelling measurement invariance is needed.

Privacy and the acceptance of centralized digital currencies in the U.S., India and Germany

National governments around the world increasingly acknowledge the possibility of introducing new digital forms of money and implementing policies that trigger their adoption. Knowledge about the acceptance of such measures, however, is rather limited. Next to the regulatory uncertainty about the impact of a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) on competition, on financial stability and questions on the integrity and technical implementations of a CBDC, recent announcements of the joint venture of e.g. the European Central Bank with a large and globally operating private company emphatically raise questions about data privacy. Therefore, we report results of a survey experiment conducted in the United States of America, Germany and India to investigate the acceptance of an app-based monthly digital payment similar to a Universal Basic Income and investigate its adoption across income levels. Controlling for privacy features and short-term vs. long-term incentives to adopt the digital payment app, we find strong reservations with regard to the involvement of multinational tech companies in establishing new digital mediums of exchange, while also finding contextual differences in acceptance levels between the studied populations.

Does economic inequality moderate the effect of class on prosocial behavior? A large-scale test of a recent hypothesis by Côté et al

Empirical research has provided mixed evidence regarding the question of whether higher social class promotes prosocial behavior. Recently, Côté et al. [1] hypothesized that these conflicting evidences might result from a hitherto neglected interaction between the individual’s level of income and the degree of inequality in one’s society. They argue that societies with a higher level of inequality foster a sense of entitlement in high-income individuals, which in turn leads them to be less generous. We put this reasoning to a large-scale test using observational data from the European Social Survey (ESS) and push the scope of our investigation towards a broader conception of social class, using next to income two additional measures of class. First, we examine whether high-class individuals in societies with high levels of inequality do in fact feel more entitled than their counterparts in more equal societies. While we find that an individual’s class and the disposition towards entitlement are strongly correlated, our results show a negative interaction with inequality, i.e. the effect of class on the personal sense of entitlement is weaker in societies with high levels of inequality. Second, we test whether the effect of class on prosocial behavior is moderated by economic inequality with respect to two real-life acts of prosocial behavior, namely engaging in volunteer work and donating money to a humanitarian organization. Our results indicate a substantial positive effect of class on prosocial behavior throughout, as well as a moderate, yet positive, interaction effect of class and inequality.