Spacing, Position, and Order: Interpretive Heuristics for Visual Features of Survey Questions

We present the results of six experiments that demonstrate theimpact of visual features of survey questions on the responsesthey elicit, the response process they initiate, or both. Allsix experiments were embedded in Web surveys. Experiments 1and 2 investigate the effects of the placement of nonsubstantiveresponse options (for example, "No opinion" and "Don’tknow" answer options) in relation to the substantive options.The results suggest that when these options are not differentiatedvisually (by a line or a space) from the substantive options,respondents may be misled about the midpoint of the scale; respondentsseemed to use the visual rather than the conceptual midpointof the scale as a reference point for responding. Experiment3, which varied the spacing of the substantive options, showeda similar result. Responses were pushed in the direction ofthe visual midpoint when it fell to one side of the conceptualmidpoint of the response scale. Experiment 4 examined the effectsof varying whether the response options, which were arrayedvertically, followed a logical progression from top to bottom.Respondents answered more quickly when the options followeda logical order. Experiment 5 examined the effects of the placementof an unfamiliar item among a series of similar items. For example,one set of items asked respondents to say whether several makesand models of cars were expensive or not. The answers for theunfamiliar items depended on the items that were nearby on thelist. Our last experiment varied whether a battery of relateditems was administered on a single screen, across two screens,or with each item on its own screen. The intercorrelations amongthe items were highest when they were all on the same screen.Respondents seem to apply interpretive heuristics in assigningmeaning to visual cues in questionnaires. They see the visualmidpoint of a scale as representing the typical or middle response;they expect options to be arrayed in a progression beginningwith the leftmost or topmost item; and they expect items thatare physically close to be related to each other conceptually.     

Visual sociology and sociological vision,revisited

Visual sociology has two main interests: picture-making by researchers (or their subjects) in the course of sociological fieldwork, and pictures made by social actors in the context of everyday life. Focusing on the latter interest and based in three social aspects of images—that they are produced in general societal settings and specific institutional settings, and are a kind of discursive practice—three approaches to the sociology of visual material are illustrated.     

Visual sociology: A practical pedagogy

As a part of an organisational sociological study of Danish film projects, I followed the development of a feature film over a one-year period in 2006–2007. Coincidentally, this film came to be about a drama in the academic world. Thus, while I researched the filmmakers, they investigated life in Academia, using me as an informant. In that way, the positions of researcher and informants were turned upside-down. Or rather, a two-way relation of mutual investigations was introduced between the filmmakers and me. In the empirical analysis of the filmmaker's work, I employ the concept of symmetrical ethnography, which has been introduced by the Brazilian anthropologist Eduardo Vivieros de Castro in an attempt to equalise the knowledge practices of informants to those of ethnographers. Vivieros de Castro suggests that such symmetry entails a turn from epistemology to ontology. Hence I discuss whether the filmmakers’ work can be seen as an invention of ontologies. Whereas studies in organisational aesthetics and sociological appraisals of documentaries within visual sociology have a tendency to compare art to academic work, I suggest looking into the filmmakers’ ‘point of view on point of view’, suggesting that the filmmakers and I may not be representing the same world differently but representing different worlds.     

Visual transparency: Looking behind thick walls

Organizations send a lot of visual information to their stakeholders, via advertisements, PR-releases, etc. The question is whether they are ready to fulfill the need for visual information, when asked. In order to analyze this question we firstly specify the meaning of the visual code, compared to literacy and orality. The distinction made by Peirce, between iconic, indexical and symbolic signs serves as our starting point. The easy availability and the sense of authenticity of visual material are considered as crucial characteristics of the visual code. Next we construct our concept visual information need, indicating what kind of messages are then to be delivered. We hypothesize that the more the visual information need is vague or ill-defined, the more the symbolic code plays a role. And – vice versa – the more precise a question is the more iconic/indexical the presentation should be. Practical examples illustrate this thesis.     

Representations of Labour: Visual Sociology and Work

This paper explores the potential that visual methods, approaches, and resources offer to the sociologist of work. It looks at the way work is represented in a range of publications and asks questions about what the visual can add to our understanding of the workplace, workers, and work processes. It argues that we need to develop and expand a sociological language of the visual in order to better understand cultural and other aspects of work and employment.     

Evaluating community capacity: Visual representation and interpretation

The purpose of this paper is to provide an interpretation ofprogramme experiences in the visual representation of strategiesused to build community capacity. The paper first discussesthe definition of community capacity in a programme contextand describes different approaches for the visual representationof the evaluation of community capacity. What is new about thispaper is that it provides a discussion about the interpretationof community capacity and in particular the use of the spiderweb configuration (so called because of the shape it resembles).This is illustrated by three examples taken from two differentcommunity development programmes, the first of which is in Fijiand the second in Kyrgyzstan. The paper concludes with a discussionabout the implications for the community development practiceof using visual representations of community capacity, includingthe difficulties, for example, of mapping changes in communitycapacities over time, and the benefits, for example, of promotinga free flow of information between stakeholders. The paper willassist practitioners to better plan for, evaluate and visuallyrepresent the findings of strategies used to build communitycapacity in community development programmes.     

Documentary Images: Visual Information Made to Order

This paper discusses the nature of documentary images, which appear to be inherently true, self evident visual statements. However, a degree of visual literacy is required of viewers before appropriate image understanding can occur. The nature of the image as icon, index, and as symbol combined to provide a powerful reinforcement of historical and current assumptions regarding documentation. Image construction and understanding are both prescribed by codes which may introduce additional meaning into the photograph. The work of Walker Evans, and other documentary photographers are used as examples of the multiple messages that are imbedded in documentary images. Finally, contemporary image technologies, scanning and digitizing are discussed within the documentary context, the use of such technologies raises questions about the ethics and credibility of photographic information.     

Visual accountability

In this article, we draw attention to the way in which accountability relations are manifested in and through the use of visual evidence. Through their status as representations of what is the case, evidentiary visual images frequently provide a basis for giving accounts and for raising questions regarding distributions of accountability. At the same time, and in a similar manner to numbers (Munro, 2001), such images become part of organized relations of accountability that can be noted as having ‘hailing’ effects: they call for and prefigure a certain kind of response and dispersing of responsibility. Here we examine how the use of visual evidence is embedded in discursive and material practices that variously create or inhibit possibilities for questioning, or interrogating, this evidence. Drawing on elements of ethnomethodology and actor‐network theory, we use ‘interrogation’ as the basis for depicting a three‐part analytical schema focused on opening up, closing down and temporality to explore how visual accountability is worked out in surveillance, traffic management and breast screening images.     

Visual ethnography: Using photography in qualitative research

This article proposes a new way to use photographs in ethnographic research. The method builds on earlier examinations of the unique properties of photographic articulation, interpretation and use, employing the inherent ambiguities of photographic imagery. Responses to ethnographic photographs of a rural farm community were recorded during group interview sessions and analyzed in relation to additional ethnographic data gathered in order to study sociocultural continuity and change across generations in farm families.     

Visual Dominance and Visual Egalitarianism: Individual and Group-Level Influences of Sex and Status in Group Interactions

This study investigated visual dominance and visual egalitarianism of men and women (N = 94; 17 teams) in team meetings at diverse workplaces. Two novel gaze-related measures were developed: (a) a group visual dominance ratio (group-VDR) assessing each member’s visual dominance vis-à-vis all other members, and (b) a gaze distribution index (GDI) assessing each member’s visual egalitarianism to all group members. Multilevel analyses were conducted to account for influences of the team members’ sex and status on the individual level and for influences of sex and status composition of the teams, and the team leaders’ sex on the group level. Results suggested that high-status individuals displayed more visual dominance than low-status individuals. The significant interaction of individuals’ sex and status indicated that the positive relationship of status and visual dominance applied particularly to women. The more women in a team, the more visual dominance was displayed. The team leader’s sex significantly influenced visual egalitarianism: Gaze distribution was less egalitarian when the team leader was male.