Q-SpAM: How to Efficiently Measure Similarity in Online Research. (August 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Koch, Alex; Speckmann, Felix; Unkelbach, Christian
• Is Part Of: Sociological methods & research. Volume 51:Number 3(2022)
• Page Start: 1442
• Page End: 1464
• Publication Date: 2022-08
• Subjects: similarity -- measurement -- spatial arrangement method -- Qualtrics -- Q-SpAM; Sociology -- Research -- Periodicals; Sociology -- Methodology -- Periodicals; 301.072
• DOI: 10.1177/0049124120914937
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0049-1241

Abstract

Measuring the similarity of stimuli is of great interest to a variety of social scientists. Spatial arrangement by dragging and dropping "more similar" targets closer together on the computer screen is a precise and efficient method to measure stimulus similarity. We present Qualtrics-spatial arrangement method (Q-SpAM), a feature-rich and user-friendly online version of spatial arrangement. Combined with crowdsourcing platforms, Q-SpAM provides fast and affordable access to similarity data even for large stimulus sets. Participants may spatially arrange up to 100 words or images, randomly selected targets, self-selected targets, self-generated targets, and targets self-marked in different colors. These and other Q-SpAM features can be combined. We exemplify how to collect, process, and visualize similarity data with Q-SpAM and provide R and Excel scripts to do so. We then illustrate Q-SpAM's versatility for social science, concluding that Q-SpAM is a reliable and valid method to measure the similarity of lots of stimuli with little effort.