Question

What are the arguments for and against having a neutral point on a scale?

Answer 1

Solution:

The use of a neutral scale has been a debatable issue for many years now. There are various arguments that support the use of neutral point and the ones that are against the use of neutral point. Generally, the neutral point is the middle point in Likert scale between the two negative and positive responses.

The neutral point is necessary because it is observed that some of the respondents may not be able to understand the question or the answer to the question because of which they would prefer to be neutral. Hence, this will not affect the overall responses because of biases due to the confusion of respondents. Hence, this bias is eliminated if we gave them a neutral choice that will suggest their lack of opinion on this particular question. Hence, the use of a neutral point is essential to minimize redundant bias.

The arguments against the use of neutral point in a Likert scale suggest that the use of neutral point to avoid bias is an indication of poor sampling where respondents are sampled in a way who do not have an opinion for a particular question. If the respondent is sampled right then all the respondents should have an opinion on the question and hence there should be even a number of points in any measurement scale. Thus, the measurement scale should not have a neutral point to ensure we get the opinion of every sampled respondent to gather quality data.

Hence these are the arguments for and against the use of neutralpoint in measurement scales.