Effects of question form, question content, and respondent experience/involvement factors on indicators of “don't know” item nonresponse to attitude questions were investigated in a split-ballot experiment with 398 respondents. Results provide support for premises of the threshold model formulated by Schuman and Presser. Experienced/involved respondents and those with little experience/involement are found to differ in the degree to which item nonresponse varies with the number of scale points and question specificity. Implications and research directions are provided.
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