Preferences of millennials for a pictorial scale: An opportunity to engage younger generations to participate in research studies

Communication tools (advertising, social media, etc.) are evolving to become increasingly more visual, driven largely by the commercial preferences of younger generations (e.g., millennials), creating promising opportunities in many areas, including research. Visuals provide an opportunity to make questionnaires and scales that are more engaging and in sync with the times. The challenge when adding visuals to questions includes choosing the best type of visual and the possibility that the changes alter the questions. Even those that are strictly visual can compromise the validity of questionnaires or scales. Visuals that include pictorial descriptions with text have been shown to be helpful and to maintain validity among those confronting communication disparities; although, studies have not specifically analized these issues among educated younger generations. The objective of this study was to analize, among college students, a pictorial and non–pictorial scale with the intent to compare psychometric propeties and to study users’ preferences between the two scales. The two scale versions (pictorial vs. non pictorial) demonstrated comparable test-retest reliability and internal consistency, and performed in theoretically predicted ways. College students preferred the pictorial format versus the original text-only version and considered the pictorial format to be friendlier, clearer, and faster to complete. Pictorial descriptions added to questions might offer advantages versus other type of visuals because pictorial descriptions have been consistently shown to have a minimal effect on the psychometrics of scales, both in pevious studies and in the present study. With the evolving progress of visual preferences for communication tools, using this strategy in questionnaires, surveys, and scales can offer a more up-to-date appearance to engage younger generations and possibly encourage participation in research studies.