Published by AU Press, Canada Journal of Research Practice Journal of Research Practice Volume 11, Issue 1, Article D1, 2015 Research Design: Exploring Slider vs. Categorical Response Formats in Web-Based Surveys Catherine A. Roster Anderson School of Management University of New Mexico, UNITED STATES
[email protected] Lorenzo Lucianetti Department of Business Administration Università degli Studi “G. d’Annunzio” Chieti – Pescara, ITALY
[email protected] Gerald Albaum Anderson School of Management University of New Mexico, UNITED STATES
[email protected] Abstract Web-based surveys have become a common mode of data collection for researchers in many fields, but there are many methodological questions that need to be answered. This article examines one such question—do the use of sliders to express numerical amounts and the use of the more traditional radio-button scales give the same, or different, measurements? First, we review the central debates surrounding the use of slider scales, including advantages and disadvantages. Second, we report findings from a controlled simple randomized design field experiment using a sample of business managers in Italy to compare the two response formats. Measures of topic sensitivity, topic interest, and likelihood of participation were obtained. No statistically significant differences were found between the response formats. The article concludes with suggestions for researchers who wish to use slider scales as a measurement device. Index Terms: Web-based survey; response format; categorical scale; visual analog scale Suggested Citation: Roster, C. A., Lucianetti, L., & Albaum, G. (2015). Exploring slider vs. categorical response formats in web-based surveys. Journal of Research Practice, 11(1), Article D1.