Visual Analog Scales, Standard Gambles, and Relative Risk Aversion

Angela Robinson, Graham Loomes () and Michael Jones-Lee
Additional contact information
Angela Robinson: Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Newcastle, Newcastle Upon Tyne, United Kingdom
Michael Jones-Lee: Department of Economics, University of Newcastle, Newcastle Upon Tyne, United Kingdom

Medical Decision Making, 2001, vol. 21, issue 1, 17-27

Abstract: Background . It has been argued that visual analog scales (VASs) elicit an individual’s measurable value function. The theoretical link between an individual’s measurable value function v(.) and his or her von Neumann-Morgenstern utility function u(.) appears to provide a justification for transforming VAS scores into standard gamble (SG) utilities. However, VAS scores have been found to be subject to the effects of context, which casts doubt that the procedure is properly revealing v(.). Methods . The authors tested for the effects of context on VAS and SG scores. They also explored whether the range-frequency (R-F) model of Parducci offers a means of correcting VAS scores for the effects of context. Results and conclusions . The R-F model may provide a means of correcting VAS scores for the effects of context, but no stable relationship exists between these corrected scores and SG utilities. Hence, there remain no grounds for transforming VAS scores into SG utilities.

Keywords: visual analog scales; standard gambles; measurable value functions; context effects; range-frequency theory (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2001
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (28)

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0272989X0102100103 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:medema:v:21:y:2001:i:1:p:17-27

DOI: 10.1177/0272989X0102100103

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Medical Decision Making
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().