Response styles and culture

Response styles are commonly defined as consistent and stable tendencies in response behavior that are not explainable in terms of question content or what a given question aims to measure. Such stable tendencies independent of question content are seen as biased reporting. Three response behaviors are most frequently discussed as "response styles": acquiescence, extreme responding and middle category responding. This book chapter presents a critical discussion of the literature on response styles, with a focus on their connections with cultural situations.