Intransitivity of Paired Comparisons Related to Gender and Community Socioeconomic Setting
AbstractA sample of 120 subjects, 11 to 14 years of age, was used to examine the effects of gender and community socioeconomic setting (CSES) on intransitivity of paired-comparison responses. A two-way analysis of variance was used to analyze data. Small gender differences were attributable to chance alone. CSES differences were large, however, with the lower CSES group having significantly (p = .014) more intrasitive responses than the higher CSES group. Interaction effects were inconsequential. It was not possible to isolate the specific aspect(s) of community socioeconomic setting (i.e., family income, parents’ education, etc.) that accounted for the CSES effect. It was concluded that CSES is too complex to treat as a simple dichotomous variable (higher or lower) and that additional research is needed to examine its multidimensional nature. Suggestions for future research are given.