RATING SCALES NUMERIC VALUES MAY CHANGE THE MEANING OF SCALE LABELS |
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Authors: | SCHWARZ NORBERT; KNAUPER BARBEL; HIPPLER HANS-J; NOELLE-NEUMANN ELISABETH; CLARK LESLIE |
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Institution: | program director at ZUMA and Privatdozent of psychology at the University of Heidelberg
research associate at ZUMA
project director at ZUMA
founder and director of the Institute für Demoskopie Allensbach, and professor emeritus of mass communication at the University of Mainz
assistant professor of psychology at Purdue University |
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Abstract: | Three experiments indicate that the numeric values providedas part of a rating scale may influence respondents' interpretationof the endpoint labels. In experiment 1, a representative sampleof German adults rated their success in life along an 11-pointrating scale, with the endpoints labeled "not at all successful"and "extremely successful." When the numeric values ranged from0 ("not at all successful") to 10 ("extremely successful"),34 percent of the respondents endorsed values between 0 and5. However, only 13 percent endorsed formally equivalent valuesbetween –5 and 0, when the scale ranged from –5("not at all successful") to +5 ("extremely successful"). Experiment2 provided an extended conceptual replication of this finding,and experiment 3 demonstrates that recipients of a respondent'sreport draw different inferences from formally equivalent butnumerically different values. In combination, the findings indicatethat respondents use the numeric values to disambiguate themeaning of scale labels, resulting in different interpretationsand, accordingly, different subjective scale anchors. |
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