Are Attention Check Questions a Threat to Scale Validity?

Attention checks have become increasingly popular in survey research as a means to filter out careless respondents. Despite their widespread use, little research has empirically tested the impact of attention checks on scale validity. In fact, because attention checks can induce a more deliberative mindset in survey respondents, they may change the way respondents answer survey questions, posing a threat to scale validity. In two studies, we...