Study title

Non-probability: Quota

Non-probability Sample: Quota Sample Around 8,000 complete responses were collected in the first phase and around 2,000 in the second phase. Some 25% of respondents were excluded from the data base after failing to meet various quality control criteria - country of residence, age, testing time, ability test, consistency of answers, and answers on quality control questions. Thus, in the final sample there are 4,957 US respondents 953 UK respondents in the first phase and additional 1,606 US respondents in the second phase. The sample was a convenience sample and is unrepresentative of the populations of the US and UK. Quotas were used to ensure a gender, age and regional distribution that broadly represented census data in the US and UK. These desired gender distribution was not achieved as there are somewhat more women than men in both the US and UK samples. Survey implementation The survey was conducted in two phases: In the first phase, each respondent was randomly assigned to one of the four test conditions (as indicated above, Socio-emotional skills and Vocational interest scales have slightly modified test conditions): Condition A: Original scales with neutral response option Condition B: Original scales without neutral response option Condition C: Simplified scales with neutral response option Condition D: Simplified scales without neutral response option Apart from the nine personality scales, all other scales were assigned to all respondents, including the ability test which was administered as the last scale in the survey. In the second phase, three groups of respondents (around 500 in each group) were administered different sets of personality scales under all four test conditions. In particular, the first group of respondents were assigned the Big Five questionnaire with 60 items in four conditions, representing 240 items in total (plus all other additional variables and ability test). The second group were administered the Traditionalism, Self-Control, Self-Efficacy and Socio-Emotional skills scales (54 items) in all four conditions (216 items in total). The third group was administered the Integrity/Honesty, Job orientations and Vocational Interests scales (54 items) in all four conditions as (216 personality items). The second phase was added to the project in order to complement the between-subject design of the first phase with a within-subject design, in order to identify scale and item properties across different conditions in a more straightforward manner.