Citation

Rise J, Halkjelsvik T. Int. J. Drug Policy 2015; 26(7): 632-635.

Affiliation

Norwegian Institute for Alcohol and Drug Research, Norway.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2015, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.drugpo.2015.01.016

PMID

25701513

Abstract

BACKGROUND: It is important to know whether the public opinion on drug policies can be measured in a reliable and valid way. One of the threats to the validity of surveys on attitudes toward drug policies are wording effects, of which the most well-known is the forbid-allow asymmetry, i.e., people are often more willing to not allow something than to forbid it. The aim of the present study was to estimate the size of the allow-forbid asymmetry when measuring attitudes toward drug policy issues in the Norwegian adult population.

METHODS: The data derive from a sample of 2182 adult Norwegian, aged 18-70, drawn from a large online panel comprising more than 50,000 Norwegian citizens (55% response rate). According to a 2 (allow vs. forbid)×2 (question vs. statement) between-subjects design, participants indicated support for the following three restrictive drug policies: (i) to allow/forbid wine in grocery stores, (ii) to allow/forbid smoking in parks and other public places and (iii) to allow forbid cannabis for recreational purposes.

RESULTS: There was not a significant difference between the framing conditions (forbid-allow) across the three policies, with an estimated difference of 2 percentage points (95% confidence intervals 0-5).

CONCLUSION: The results suggest that survey research in the present context of drug policy is indeed more of a fact-finding enterprise than a process of constructing data.

Language: en