Position bias in best-worst scaling surveys: a case study on trust in institutions

dc.creatorCampbell, Danny
dc.creatorErdem, Seda
dc.date2017-04-01T18:51:42Z
dc.date.accessioned2026-07-09T08:13:25Z
dc.descriptionThis paper investigates the effect of physical position on ‘best’ and ‘worst’ choices in the bestworst scaling technique. Although the best-worst scaling technique has been used widely in many fields, the phenomenon of consumers’ adoption of processing strategies while making choices has been largely overlooked. We examine this issue in the context of consumers’ perception of trust in institutions to provide information about a new food technology, namely nanotechnology, and its use in food processing. Our results show that around half of the consumers used position as a schematic cue when making choices. We find the position bias is particularly strong when consumers chose their most trustworthy institution compared to their least trustworthy institution. In light of our findings, we recommend researchers in the field to be aware of the possibility of position bias when designing best-worst scaling surveys. We also encourage researchers who have already collected best-worst data to investigate whether their data shows such heuristics.
dc.identifierdoi:10.22004/ag.econ.177167
dc.identifierhttps://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/177167/files/Campbell_%20Danny.pdf
dc.identifierhttp://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/177167
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/123456789/596806
dc.languageeng
dc.publisher
dc.sourcehttp://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/177167
dc.titlePosition bias in best-worst scaling surveys: a case study on trust in institutions
dc.typeText

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