Presentation methods for unidirectional scales to measure consumers' liking and disliking percepts

Consumers demonstrated bivariate conceptualization, which resulted in an independent relationship between their liking and disliking ratings using the liking and disliking unidirectional scales (LDUS) from our previous consumer test studies. Although this provided the rationale for the use of the LDUS in consumer tests, the additional time and resources required for separate measurements of liking and disliking may prevent widespread adoption of the LDUS. The objective of this study was to compare the sample discrimination performance and reliability of one-sample measurement using the evaluative space grid (ESG) and consecutive scale presentation (CSP) to the performance of the originally published two-sample measurement scheme using the monadic scale presentation (MSP). Similar distribution fit was found for each sample by Kruskal-Wallis one-way analysis of variance with 10,000 simulations across the MSP, ESG and CSP (P > 0.05). Significantly higher liking ratings for 6 out of 10 samples were observed for the ESG compared to the ratings for the MSP and/or CSP. No significant difference was found in either the liking ratings between the MSP and CSP, or in the disliking ratings among the MSP, ESG and CSP. The subjects were more consistent in their disliking ratings across the three scale presentations compared to their liking ratings. Based on the results, the ESG had a similar discrimination performance, but the liking rating was consistently higher than those of the MSP and CSP due to the interaction of liking and disliking measurements. Reliable sample discrimination performance with no significant differences was observed in liking and disliking ratings by the CSP when compared to the MSP. Therefore, measuring consumers' liking and disliking percepts with one-sample presentation using the CSP is deemed to be a method that is comparable to the two-sample presentation of the MSP.