Relative versus absolute measures of explicit attitudes: Implications for predicting diverse attitude-relevant criteria

The authors report 4 studies exploring a self-report strategy for measuring explicit attitudes that uses "relative" ratings, in which respondents indicate how favorable or unfavorable they are compared with other people. Results consistently showed that attitudes measured with relative scales predicted relevant criterion variables (self-report of behavior, measures of knowledge, peer ratings of attitudes, peer ratings of behavior) better than did attitudes measured with more traditional "absolute" scales. The obtained pattern of differences in prediction by relative versus absolute measures of attitudes did not appear to be attributable to differential variability, social desirability effects, the clarity of scale-point meanings, the number of scale points, or overlap with subjective norms. The final study indicated that relative measures induce respondents to consider social comparison information and behavioral information when making their responses more than do absolute measures, which may explain the higher correlations between relative measures of attitudes and relevant criteria.