Extremity in horizontal and vertical Likert scale format responses. Some evidence on how visual distance between response categories influences extreme responding

In four survey experiments we show that people generally answer more extremely to items presented in vertical versus horizontal Likert formats. Our findings suggest this effect may be at least partly driven by differences the visual range spanned response scale (i.e. distance between endpoint categories is larger than a format). addition, compared traditional data, data contain variance, which mainly non-substantive. As result, obtained with formats have different distances (as typically case for vs. formats) lead measurement model parameter estimates like residual terms, and some cases factor loadings construct correlations. Based on these results, provide recommendations use of online surveys, bearing mind several tool providers promote even automatically change Likert-type when viewed small screens (e.g., mobile phones).