Rating scales are much used in survey research. Often, it is assumed that the scores obtained through rating scales can be compared within and between respondents when studies are in one country. In addition, it is assumed that they can be treated as a numerical scale. In this paper, we study the anchoring effect of a visual stimulus on rating scale usage. To do so, we set up a randomized experiment where the experimental group was primed by asking to rate the filling of a cylinder that was presented visually. For a five point rating scale, we find the effect that primed respondents use Category 1 less and Categories 3 and 4 more, and no effect on Categories 2 and 5.

翻译：评级尺度在调查研究中广泛使用,通常假定通过评级尺度获得的评分可以在答复者内部和彼此之间进行比较,在一个国家进行研究时,还可以在答复者之间进行比较;此外,还假定这些评分可以作为数值尺度对待;在本文中,我们研究了视觉刺激对评级尺度使用的影响;为此,我们建立了一个随机实验,试验组在试验组中要求对以视觉显示的圆筒的填充量进行评分;对于5点评分尺度,我们发现典型的答卷者使用第1类减去第3类和第4类,对第2类和第5类没有影响,对第2类和5类没有影响。