Q-SpAM: How to Efficiently Measure Similarity in Online Research

Alex Koch, Felix Speckmann and Christian Unkelbach

Sociological Methods & Research, 2022, vol. 51, issue 3, 1442-1464

Abstract: Measuring the similarity of stimuli is of great interest to a variety of social scientists. Spatial arrangement by dragging and dropping “more similar†targets closer together on the computer screen is a precise and efficient method to measure stimulus similarity. We present Qualtrics-spatial arrangement method (Q-SpAM), a feature-rich and user-friendly online version of spatial arrangement. Combined with crowdsourcing platforms, Q-SpAM provides fast and affordable access to similarity data even for large stimulus sets. Participants may spatially arrange up to 100 words or images, randomly selected targets, self-selected targets, self-generated targets, and targets self-marked in different colors. These and other Q-SpAM features can be combined. We exemplify how to collect, process, and visualize similarity data with Q-SpAM and provide R and Excel scripts to do so. We then illustrate Q-SpAM’s versatility for social science, concluding that Q-SpAM is a reliable and valid method to measure the similarity of lots of stimuli with little effort.

Keywords: similarity; measurement; spatial arrangement method; Qualtrics; Q-SpAM (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:somere:v:51:y:2022:i:3:p:1442-1464

DOI: 10.1177/0049124120914937

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