PSR Podcast #21: Dr Tsung-han Tsai, When “Don’t Know” Indicates Nonignorable Missingness: Using the Estimation of Political Knowledge as an Example

“In some cases, don’t know can be considered as valid responses rather than missing values. For example, in the case of measuring political knowledge, the conventional approach is categorizing don’t know into incorrect responses. However, more and more research suspects whether it is appropriate to treat don’t know as an absence-of-knowledge category. This research pays attention to partial knowledge hidden within don’t know.” – says Dr Tsung-han Tsai.

Dr Tsung-han Tsai proposes a model to extract the information from don’t know responses and to formally test partial knowledge within don’t know. To learn more listen to the podcast and read the PSR article When “Don’t Know” Indicates Nonignorable Missingness: Using the Estimation of Political Knowledge as an Example – Tsung-Han Tsai, 2023 (sagepub.com)

PODCAST SCRIPT

In survey research, researchers usually design a battery of questions to measure some concepts such as democratic values and political knowledge. Owing to the limitations of the questionnaire length, three to five questions are used to measure a defined concept.  Since there are only limited questions for a concept, responses to these questions matter. However, respondents sometimes provide nonresponses to these questions such as don’t know. One widely used approach to deal with nonresponses is to treat them as missing values. Treating nonresponses as missing values indicates that there is no information extracted from these questions.

In some cases, don’t know can be considered valid responses rather than missing values. For example, in the case of measuring political knowledge, the conventional approach is categorizing don’t know into incorrect responses. However, more and more research suspects whether it is appropriate to treat don’t know as an absence-of-knowledge category. This research pays attention to partial knowledge hidden within don’t know.

In this paper, I propose a model to extract the information from don’t know responses, on the one hand, and to formally test partial knowledge within DK. In specific, I combine item response theory and the shared-parameter approach which is presented in the literature on missing data mechanisms. Unlike the conventional approach, I treat DK as missing values and assume that they are missing not at random. The logic is that whether a response to political knowledge questions is correct or not and whether a don’t know the response is provided is determined by knowledge levels.

I applied the proposed model to analyze survey data from Taiwan’s Election and Democratization Study project. In specific, I study the gender gap in political knowledge. It has been argued that men appear to know more about politics than women. Even though some studies recognize the gender gap in knowledge, others argue that the higher percentage of DK responses from women exaggerates the gap in political knowledge.

That is if there is knowledge hidden within DK responses, treating DKs as incorrect responses would make women appear less knowledgeable than they actually are. According to the results of the analysis in this article, we do find hidden knowledge within nonresponses for women. This phenomenon, however, occurs only in one of the three political knowledge questions. These results suggest that the gender gap in political knowledge is not seriously exaggerated by women’s higher percentages of nonresponses because most of the time these nonresponses indicate the absence of knowledge.

MORE

Tsai, T.-H. (2023). When “Don’t Know” Indicates Nonignorable Missingness: Using the Estimation of Political Knowledge as an Example. Political Studies Review21(1), 99–126. https://doi.org/10.1177/14789299211058543

Tsung-Han Tsai is an Associate Research Fellow at the Institute of Political Science at Academia Sinica and jointly appointed associate research fellow in the Election Study Center at National Chengchi University (NCCU), Taipei, Taiwan

Personal website: Tsung-han Tsai – Home (weebly.com)

production

Dr Eliza Kania, Brunel University London

PSR Podcast #20: Caroline V. Leicht, Nightly News or Nightly Jokes? News Parody as a Form of Political Communication: A Review of the Literature

“Studies have shown that 0ne in four Americans received their election news from late-night comedy shows. And yet the literature on news parody still has significant limitations” – says Caroline V. Leicht.

The author claims that although news parody as a form of political communication has been at the centre of various studies, some “limitations and gaps in the literature remain substantially unexplored”. The podcast is based on Caroline V. Leicht’s PSR article: Nightly News or Nightly Jokes? News Parody as a Form of Political Communication: A Review of the Literature.

MORE

Leicht, C. V. (2022). Nightly News or Nightly Jokes? News Parody as a Form of Political Communication: A Review of the LiteraturePolitical Studies Review. https://doi.org/10.1177/14789299221100339

Caroline V Leicht received her MA from the University of Liverpool and is currently a PhD researcher at the University of Southampton. Her research focuses on political satire as a form of political communication in electoral contexts in the United States.

production

Dr Eliza Kania, Brunel University London

Issue 2/2022: ethics, power, the boundaries of political science, gendered elections, gendered budgets and more

The whole issue 2/2022 can be found here.

CONTENTS

Experiments with Politicians: Ethics, Power, and the Boundaries of Political Science

ARTICLES

STATE OF ART – REVIEW ARTICLE

Early Results

THE NULL HYPOTHESIS

RELATED CONTENT

Issue 1/2022: pluralism, academia, political participation and more

The whole issue 1/2022 can be found here.

CONTENTS

Pluralism and Political Studies in the UK

State of the Art – Review Articles

ARTICLES

Early Results

RELATED CONTENT

Political Studies Review: a research-based interview project

Some researchers claim that “a key to accessible, interesting academic work is [a] conversational yet authoritative tone coupled with attention-getting titles, compelling openings, anecdotes and illustrations”[1]. We agree.

Our editorial team is committed to presenting and visualizing research data to boost dissemination and to reaching wider (including non-academic) audiences. We use different forms of communication to present research findings such as infographics and data animations. Some of our authors have also contributed to our excellent podcast series. But this time we would like to invite PSR authors to take part in our research-based interview project.

We believe that interviews are also a prominent form of research communication. It gives a space to discuss a research topic, article or research ideas in a less formal format.

To illustrate this idea, we have prepared some excellent examples:

If you’d decide to take part in this, here’s how it works. We will provide you with around 5 questions based on your article, research aims or ideas. You can answer them in writing, or by recording your answers and add any visual/graphical material you want to use to explain your point. The idea is that answers should be relatively brief, and provide readers or listeners with a flavour of your research. As with all our activity, we will promote this through social media for maximum exposure.

The idea is that answers should be relatively brief, and provide readers or listeners with a flavour of your research.

The outcome will be informative and accessible (published at psr.brunel.ac.uk) and will encourage readers to engage further with your article and wider research.


[1] Feature Essay: The road to academic success is paved with stylish academic writing, LSE Impact Blog, 20.05.2020, https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsereviewofbooks/2012/05/20/the-road-to-academic-success-is-paved-with-stylish-academic-writing/