| Abstract: | A model for measuring subjective evaluations of multiple component alternatives is developed and tested in the context of business students' evaluations of professorial candidates for tenured positions. The model is based on a type of ANOVA formulation in which the response variable need only be rank ordered. That is, arbitrary monotonic functions of subjective responses can be made that optimize a well-defined badness of fit measure. Application of the model indicates that metric analysis of the response data can exhibit a large number of configural (interaction) effects that may be a reflection of how subjects use rating scales rather than anything more basic in their combination of multiple component cues. Implications of these findings for the modeling of multiple component choices are discussed. |
