Evaluation of Open-Ended, Vote Assumption, Reconsideration, and Interviewer Evaluation Questions

This chapter examines the measures related to the reliability of the choice data. In section 5.2, responses to selected open-ended questions are examined. The primary focus is on the open-ended, follow-up questions recommended by the NOAA Panel that ask respondents to explain their reasons for voting for or against the Central Coast prevention program or for not knowing how they would vote. Section 5.2 also examines the responses to questions embedded in the presentation of the scenario. In section 5.3, responses to the vote-assumption questions are examined to explore how respondents perceived various aspects of the scenario and whether they felt pressured to vote a particular way. Section 5.4 explores the characteristics of those respondents who changed their initial vote when they were given opportunities to reconsider. In section 5.5, interviewer assessments of various aspects of the interview are examined; and finally, section 5.6 presents a summary of our qualitative analysis of reliability.