Consensus Analysis and Subcultural Variation: Examining the Second Consensus Factor

When one examines typical survey data question-by-question, it is common to find that respondents converge fairly strongly in their answers to some questions, but show considerable diversity with respect to others. Indeed, in light of the range of responses for virtually every question, one might well ask whether there is common cultural understanding of the topic under investigation. To what extent can the diversity of answers among respondents be understood as random deviations from a generally shared culture? Is there a single “answer key” underlying the pattern of responses? These are the familiar research questions that consensus analysis enables us to answer. But, consensus analysis can also be used to identify systematically different understandings, if such exist in one’s data. And, if coherent subcultural viewpoints do exist, then we need to identify the substantive topics/issues that differentiate them. In this paper, we review ways that consensus analysis can shed light on subcultural diversity, focusing especially on the second factor extracted. The data come from our research on residents perceptions of tourism in the Turks and Caicos Islands. The following paper is based upon work supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation under Grant No. BCS-0621241. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. The work was also supported by the Turks and Caicos Islands Ministry of Tourism and the Tourist Board.