Vanilla

Apple

Coconut

Peanut Butter

Rootbeer

Bubble Gum

Buttered Popcorn

Cinnamon

Jalapeno Pepper

Strawberry Dacquiri

Mean Class Ratings

Standard Deviations

% Positive Experience

Measurement

• Measurement: assigning numbers to reflect the relative or absolute amount of some property

• Goal is to achieve objectivity: "When description gives way to measurement, calculation replaces debate.“

4 types of Scales:

Categorical: Where do you live?

(1) Arlington (2) Beacon Hill (3) Cambridge (4) Somerville

Ordinal: Rank the following colas, from best to worst:

(Coke, Meijer, RC, Shaw's,)

Interval: Rate the 4 brands of colas, on a 10 point scale:

S M RC C 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 very bad fantastic

Ratio: How many cans of Coke did you drink last year? ____

Fresh-Samantha Paradox

Fresh Samantha Flavors

Carrot

Orange Carrot

Orange

Soy Shake

Average Rating

2.7

3.0

2.3

2.0

Market Share

33%

0%

33%

33%

1 2 3 4Worst best

Highest average ranking, but 0 market share

(4 points) (3 points) (2 points) (1 point)

(A) Carrot Orange-Carrot Orange Soy Shake

(B) Orange Orange-Carrot Carrot Soy Shake

(C) Soy Shake Orange-Carrot Carrot Orange

3 cognitive stages in answering a survey question

interpretQuestion

retrieve information & form judgment

map judgmentonto response

scale

Do people interpret the question as intended?

• What brand of soft drink do you typically buy?

interpretquestion

retrieve information & form judgment

map judgmentonto response

scale

Can people retrieve the relevant information?

• How many ounces of alcohol did you consume last year?

map judgmentonto response

scaleinterpretQuestion

retrieve information & form judgment

How do people select responses?

• How successful are you on a scale from 1 to 10?

interpretQuestion

retrieve information & form judgment

map judgmentonto response

scale

Effects of response scale format

How successful have you been in life ?

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 not at all very

-5 -4 -3 -2 1 0 1 2 3 4 5

not at all very

Response scale may provide cues as to theexpected or "normal" levels of a behavior

How many times do you floss in a typical day ?

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 >10

How many times do you floss in a typical year ?

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 >10

How likely are you to develop gum disease?

How much would you pay for a bottle of Scope mouth wash?

Response scale may provide cues as to theexpected or "normal" levels of a behavior

How many hours a day do you spend watching TV ?

How many hours a day do you spend watching TV ?

Extracting sensitive information

• Do you happen to have done X in the last year?

• As you know, many people have been doing X these days. Do you

happen to have done X?

• Do you know anyone who has done X? How about yourself?

• Pull a coin from your pocket. If it lands Heads, answer Question 1.

If it lands Tails answer Question 2:

1. Is your birthday between January 1st and June 1st ?

2. Have you ever done X?

"YES"

"NO"

"YES"

"NO"Have not done "X"

Have done "X"

Question Order

1. How satisfied are you with your life overall?

1. How is the weather down there?

2. How satisfied are you with your life overall?

Question Order

1. How many dates did you have last month?

2. How satisfied are you with your life, in general?

1. How satisfied are you with your life?2. How many dates did you have last month?

r = 0.66 r = 0

Question Wording

• The government is spending too little on "welfare“

Yes No

25% 75%

• The government is spending too little on "assistance to the poor“

Yes No

65% 35%

"Double Barreled" Questions

• Do you like Rudy Guiliani's policies and the way he has conducted himself after the World Trade Center disaster of September 11th ?

Yes No

• Do you like low-salt wheat thins and other Nabisco snack products?

Yes No

Leading questions

• "A roach disk poisons a roach slowly. The dying roach returns to the nest and after it dies it is eaten by other roaches. In turn these roaches become poisoned and die."

• How effective do you think this product would be in killing roaches?

not effective slightly effective very effective

The importance of context

1. How bad is it to jaywalk?

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 not at very all bad bad

2. How bad is it to spray paint the side of a building?

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 not at very all bad bad

1. How bad is it to murder your professor?

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 not at very all bad bad

2. How bad is it to spray paint the side of a building?

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 not at very all bad bad

Which information do you choose to emphasize?

"It is estimated that disposable diapers account for less than 2 percentof the trash in today's landfills. In contrast, beverage containers,third-class mail, and yard waste are estimated to account for about 21percent of the trash in landfills.“

• Given this, would it be fair to ban disposable diapers? YES NO

•

It is estimated that disposable diapers create over 3 billon pounds oftrash. These plastic in these diapers take 20,000 years to disintegrate.“

• Given this, should disposable diapers be banned? YES NO

Ease of recall affects liking

Condition 1

List 10 reasons to buy a BMW:1) __________________2) __________________3) __________________4) __________________5) __________________6) __________________7) __________________8) __________________9) __________________10) __________________

Condition 2List 1 reason to buy a BMW:1)_________________

calculating expected value &expected value of perfect information (EVPI)

Decision

Decision

A more complicated example

Decision

Decision

5.9 (with research) – 2 (without research) =3.9