Stimuli Ordering Effects in Survey Research

Although the order of survey questions as a bias on survey results has gained considerable attention, there appears to have been little interest in the effects of the order of stimuli presentation. However, in a recent project, a brand personality scale was used for the evaluation of photographs of three rocks, and the presentation order of the rocks was rotated for different participants. This revealed a surprising finding, which was that there were ordering effects for the rating of the rocks and a main effect of personification on the ratings. Using participant comments on the survey process in addition to analysis findings, the paper considers some explanations for the effects, and also the implications of the research findings.