Is the Discrepancy between Numbers Derived from Verbal and Numerical Protocols for 9-Point Hedonic Scales an Artifact of Product Choice?

摘要

Prior research showed that responses to the numbers only versions the 9-point hedonic scale were not interchangeable with numbers assigned to responses to the words only versions of the scale. One explanation is that the discrepancy is artifactual, because the stimuli used in the experiments had been generally liked. Such stimuli tend to elicit responses to the words only version of the scale in the range from 5 to 9. For the numbers only version, scores are free to range across the whole scale. It was hypothesized that this artifact could explain the discrepancy in responses to the different versions of the scale. To investigate this, it was arranged for words only responses to fall in the range 1-4, by including products that were putatively disliked. This manipulation increased the range of scores for the words only scale into its lower portion, with a range of scores comparable to that for the numbers only scale. Yet, the data obtained from the two scales remained discrepant. This did not support the artifact hypothesis. Accordingly, the hypothesis that differences in cognitive strategy were the major explanation for the discrepancy was preferred.