Validity Aspects of Vignette Experiments: Expected “What‐If” Differences Between Reports of Behavioral Intentions and Actual Behavior

Eifler, Stefanie; Petzold, Knut

doi:10.1002/9781119083771.ch20

Cited by 41 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 50 publications

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“…Of course, our research has some limitations. Though vignettes have been shown to approximate real world behavior [ 47 ], some studies show divergence between hypothesized behaviors and real world behaviors [ 48 ]. Even if the internal validity of the vignette experiment is ensured by randomly assigning respondents to one of the four vignette versions and controlling for covariates, external validity may be questioned.…”

Section: Discussion and Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

In science we (should) trust: Expectations and compliance across nine countries during the COVID-19 pandemic

et al. 2021

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The magnitude and nature of the COVID-19 pandemic prevents public health policies from relying on coercive enforcement. Practicing social distancing, wearing masks and staying at home becomes voluntary and conditional on the behavior of others. We present the results of a large-scale survey experiment in nine countries with representative samples of the population. We find that both empirical expectations (what others do) and normative expectations (what others approve of) play a significant role in compliance, beyond the effect of any other individual or group characteristic. In our vignette experiment, respondents evaluate the likelihood of compliance with social distancing and staying at home of someone similar to them in a hypothetical scenario. When empirical and normative expectations of individuals are high, respondents’ evaluation of the vignette’s character’s compliance likelihood goes up by 55% (relative to the low expectations condition). Similar results are obtained when looking at self-reported compliance among those with high expectations. Our results are moderated by individuals’ trust in government and trust in science. Holding expectations high, the effect of trusting science is substantial and significant in our vignette experiment (22% increase in compliance likelihood), and even larger in self-reported compliance (76% and 127% increase before and after the lockdown). By contrast, trusting the government only generates modest effects. At the aggregate level, the country-level trust in science, and not in government, becomes a strong predictor of compliance.

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Section: Discussion and Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

In science we (should) trust: Expectations and compliance across nine countries during the COVID-19 pandemic

et al. 2021

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“…First, intent-to-purchase questions measure accounts of prospective behavior, rather than participant’s actual future behavior. Our accounts of our future behavior are fallible; “talk is cheap” and is not a reliable indicator of future behavior in ethnographic (Jerolmack and Khan 2014), survey, or experimental contexts (Eifler and Petzold 2019). Intent-to-purchase questions may also catalyze purchases via self-generated validity (Chandon, Morwitz, and Reinartz 2005), which is of concern when administering a large survey experiment such as this study ( N = 4,240).…”

Section: Data Collection and Experimental Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transmitting Desire: An Experiment on a Novel Measure of Gun Desirability in a Pandemic

Sola

2021

Sociological Perspectives

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The COVID-19 pandemic and protests have marked an unprecedented increase in U.S. gun sales. But America has long been an outlier; the stockpile of private guns climbed to almost 300 million in 2017. Scholars use multiple theories to explain why gun sales have tripled since the early 2000s, and why disruptions like the pandemic might cause gun sales. However, scholars have difficulty evaluating these theories with existing retrospective estimates of gun sales and other measures, limiting their ability to test theory or suggest policy changes. This study uses the known increase in gun sales during the COVID-19 pandemic to introduce and experimentally validate a novel measure of gun desirability. With a sample of 4,240 U.S. residents, this project demonstrates that gun desirability is a valid measure of inclination toward gun ownership, and that a pandemic video vignette significantly increases overall gun desirability relative to a control video vignette. These results serve as a foundation for future scholarship to (1) discern gun desirability trends, (2) evaluate theorized causes of gun desirability, and (3) consider interventions on those conditions that arouse desire for gun ownership.

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“…However, despite the strengths of the trial stimulus, the hypothetical nature of this study limits generalizability. That is, the lack of real-world consequences may have resulted in different responses from our mock jurors than would be observed with real jurors (Eifler & Petzold, 2019). This study also suffered from additional limitations regarding the sample type and lack of deliberation.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Trial by Tabloid: Can Implicit Bias Education Reduce Pretrial Publicity Bias?

Jones¹,

Wong²,

Meyers³

et al. 2021

Criminal Justice and Behavior

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The Western District of Washington recently developed an educational video to reduce jurors’ implicit biases. Little is known regarding the effectiveness of this proposed remedy to address a range of implicit biases. This study tested whether this educational video reduces pretrial publicity (PTP) bias. A total of 330 undergraduate participants were randomly assigned to read PTP or unrelated articles. An average of 9 days later, they were randomly assigned to watch the educational video prior to viewing a murder trial. Those exposed to PTP were more likely to convict and found the defendant more culpable and less credible. The educational video did not reduce PTP bias. A more tailored debiasing strategy may be needed to overcome the biasing effects of PTP. Differences in legal decisions also emerged depending on whether participants completed the second phase in-person or online, which has implications for future data collection modes.

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Validity Aspects of Vignette Experiments: Expected “What‐If” Differences Between Reports of Behavioral Intentions and Actual Behavior

Cited by 41 publications

References 50 publications

In science we (should) trust: Expectations and compliance across nine countries during the COVID-19 pandemic

In science we (should) trust: Expectations and compliance across nine countries during the COVID-19 pandemic

Transmitting Desire: An Experiment on a Novel Measure of Gun Desirability in a Pandemic

Trial by Tabloid: Can Implicit Bias Education Reduce Pretrial Publicity Bias?

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