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Touching beliefs: Using touchscreen technology to elicit subjective expectations in survey research

When making decisions under uncertainty, individuals may form subjective expectations about probabilities of events relevant for their choice. Accurate measurement of subjective expectations is critical for high-quality data needed to analyze individual behavior. This paper reports the development a...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Maffioli, Elisa M., Mohanan, Manoj
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6245744/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30458014
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0207484
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author Maffioli, Elisa M.
Mohanan, Manoj
author_facet Maffioli, Elisa M.
Mohanan, Manoj
author_sort Maffioli, Elisa M.
collection PubMed
description When making decisions under uncertainty, individuals may form subjective expectations about probabilities of events relevant for their choice. Accurate measurement of subjective expectations is critical for high-quality data needed to analyze individual behavior. This paper reports the development and validity of a new method of eliciting point subjective expectations in developing countries. We developed a touchscreen-based application that combines an animated slider along with dynamic images that change relative sizes based on the probability indicated by the respondent. We compare our method to the more traditional approach of using beans as visual aids. First, we find that respondents have a sound understanding of basic concepts of probability. Second, we test for equality of the distributions elicited with the different methods and find them highly comparable. Third, we provide evidence that respondents report a more favorable opinion about the slider method and more willingness to complete long surveys using the slider rather than beans. Our findings suggest that the slider could be a viable elicitation method for empirical researchers who aim to collect data on subjective expectations in developing countries.
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spelling pubmed-62457442018-12-01 Touching beliefs: Using touchscreen technology to elicit subjective expectations in survey research Maffioli, Elisa M. Mohanan, Manoj PLoS One Research Article When making decisions under uncertainty, individuals may form subjective expectations about probabilities of events relevant for their choice. Accurate measurement of subjective expectations is critical for high-quality data needed to analyze individual behavior. This paper reports the development and validity of a new method of eliciting point subjective expectations in developing countries. We developed a touchscreen-based application that combines an animated slider along with dynamic images that change relative sizes based on the probability indicated by the respondent. We compare our method to the more traditional approach of using beans as visual aids. First, we find that respondents have a sound understanding of basic concepts of probability. Second, we test for equality of the distributions elicited with the different methods and find them highly comparable. Third, we provide evidence that respondents report a more favorable opinion about the slider method and more willingness to complete long surveys using the slider rather than beans. Our findings suggest that the slider could be a viable elicitation method for empirical researchers who aim to collect data on subjective expectations in developing countries. Public Library of Science 2018-11-20 /pmc/articles/PMC6245744/ /pubmed/30458014 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0207484 Text en © 2018 Maffioli, Mohanan http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Maffioli, Elisa M.
Mohanan, Manoj
Touching beliefs: Using touchscreen technology to elicit subjective expectations in survey research
title Touching beliefs: Using touchscreen technology to elicit subjective expectations in survey research
title_full Touching beliefs: Using touchscreen technology to elicit subjective expectations in survey research
title_fullStr Touching beliefs: Using touchscreen technology to elicit subjective expectations in survey research
title_full_unstemmed Touching beliefs: Using touchscreen technology to elicit subjective expectations in survey research
title_short Touching beliefs: Using touchscreen technology to elicit subjective expectations in survey research
title_sort touching beliefs: using touchscreen technology to elicit subjective expectations in survey research
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6245744/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30458014
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0207484
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