Statistical modeling of vignette data in psychology

Abstract

Vignette methods are widely used in psychology and the social sciences to obtain responses to multi-dimensional scenarios or situations. Where quantitative data are collected this presents challenges to the selection of an appropriate statistical model. This depends on subtle details of the design and allocation of vignettes to participants. A key distinction is between factorial survey experiments where each participant receives a different allocation of vignettes from the full universe of possible vignettes and experimental vignette studies where this restriction is relaxed. The former leads to nested designs with a single random factor and the latter to designs with two crossed random factors. In addition, the allocation of vignettes to participants may lead to fractional or unbalanced designs and a consequent loss of efficiency or aliasing of the effects of interest. Many vignette studies (including some factorial survey experiments) include unmodeled heterogeneity between vignettes leading to potentially serious problems if traditional regression approaches are adopted. These issues are reviewed and recommendations are made for the efficient design of vignette studies including the allocation of vignettes to participants. Multilevel models are proposed as a general approach to handling nested and crossed designs including unbalanced and fractional designs. This is illustrated with a small vignette data set looking at judgements of online and offline bullying and harassment.