New scientific article in Sociological Methods & Research

When comparing social science phenomena through a time perspective, absolute and relative difference are the two typical presentation formats used to communicate interpretations to the audience, while time distance is the least frequently used of such formats.

The article of Dr. Katja Prevodnik and Prof. Dr. Vasja Vehovar addresses the issue of basic comparative measures and argues that the chosen presentation format is extremely important because the various formats suggest different substantive interpretations. To elaborate upon this issue, researchers from the National Statistical Office, National Health Institute, and general academia were invited to participate in an experiment with alternative presentation formats that describe changes in certain social science phenomena over time.

The results revealed a prevailing tendency of respondents to rely on interpretations related to absolute differences, which was additionally reinforced with graphical presentation formats. Therefore, whenever relative difference or time distance is more proper for substantive interpretations, the corresponding presentation format must be designed with special attention.

The open access article “ Methodological Issues When Interpreting Changes in Social Phenomena Over Time: Perceptions of Relative Difference, Absolute Difference, and Time Distance” has been published in the Sociological Methods & Research, with the financial support of the Slovenian Research Agency from research grants: J5-9334, J5-8233 and P5-0399.