Assessment of the cross-national validity of an End-anchored 9-point hedonic product liking scale

An end-anchored 9-point hedonic product liking (PL) scale is an easy-to-apply instrument to examine consumers’ PL. Because 9-point hedonic PL scales are also popular in cross-national research, strong demands are put on its cross-national equivalence, that is, the absence of cross-national scoring bias. The present study provides a procedure to identify the presence of cross-national scoring bias in the use of the end-anchored 9-point hedonic PL scale or any other rating scale to measure PL. The procedure is illustrated on experimental (illustrative) data from students in four European nations (i.e., Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, and Spain). It explores cross-national equivalence in terms of (1) mean PL scores, (2) variation in PL scores, and (3) the impact of cross-cultural scoring bias in statistical inference making. Data analyses revealed that cross-national scoring bias only affected the variability in participants’ PL scores, but not the level of their PL scores. However, cross-national scoring bias in variation in PL scores did exert a substantial influence on a statistical inference making of mean PL scores. In sum, this study (1) provides preliminary evidence that cross-national scoring bias may seriously hamper the validity of cross-national comparisons of PL scores; and (2) offers a new methodology allowing food researchers to assess the extent to which the amount of cross-national scoring bias in their PL data will result in invalid cross-national comparisons. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2015