Skin Color Scale for (Face-to-Face Mode) Respondents and Pre-Election Interviewers
The skin color scale used in the ANES 2016 Time Series Study duplicates the NIS (New Immigrant Survey) scale designed by Douglas S. Massey and Jennifer A. Martin, based on an idea originally developed by Massey, Charles, Lundy, and Fischer (2003) in their work on the National Longitudinal Study of Freshmen.
To rate respondents, interviewers essentially memorize the scale, so that the respondent never sees the chart. Interviewers were rated by data collection managers prior to the field period and were not informed where they themselves were rated on the scale.
