Swipe right on personality: a mobile response latency measure

Abstract

Purpose

While high-stakes mobile assessment is increasing, researchers have done little to adapt traditional assessments to this new medium. The present study developed and tested a new response method for personality assessment using a mobile-first gamification design paradigm.

Design/methodology/approach

Participants used smartphones to “swipe” right or left to indicate agreement or disagreement with Goldberg's (1992) Big Five adjective indicators. These scores were correlated with responses to a Likert-type measure and participants provided reactions to both measures.

Findings

Each of the swipe-based measures was found to be a reliable and valid predictor of the corresponding dimensions measured using the Likert-type scale. Reactions to the swipe measure were mixed when compared to a traditional Likert-type measure. Response latencies of swipes were used as an indicator of self-schema beliefs. Transformed latency scores contributed incremental variance to the prediction of Likert responses beyond the dichotomous responses alone for some personality dimensions.

Research limitations/implications

Convergent validity between the two measures was likely attenuated due to differences in scales, response methods, devices, connection speeds, and social desirability effects indicating that the present results may constitute a lower-bound estimate of convergent validity between the two measurement styles.

Practical implications

Designing assessments for mobile administration requires balancing trade-offs in speed, ease of use, and number of items relative to the reliability and validity of the measures.

Originality/value

Mobile-first designs such as swipe-based responses show potential to enhance future mobile assessment practices with further development.

Citation

Weidner, N.W. and Landers, R.N. (2020), "Swipe right on personality: a mobile response latency measure", Journal of Managerial Psychology, Vol. 35 No. 4, pp. 209-223. https://doi.org/10.1108/JMP-07-2018-0330