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Category: Project

Description: I propose an alternative format for measuring knowledge about politics and government that incorporates a person’s level of certainty about the correct answer. I argue that there are two aspects of being knowledgeable: one’s ability to recognize accurate political facts and the certainty with which they regard their factual beliefs. The certainty-in-knowledge format proposed consists of a single question that captures propositional knowledge and belief certainty. This format provides a set of 4 mutually exclusive response categories (correct or incorrect X certain or uncertain) – or 5 when the “Don’t Know” option is available. These items can be combined in the standard (additive) way to create a knowledge scale.