Applying a Consistency Coefficient Methodology to General and Specific Attitudes Towards Automated Devices

Abstract

The current study addresses two main goals: a) to present a new methodological approach that features within-participants consistency coefficients as a means to analyse data; and b) to show how this new methodology can generate findings otherwise impossible to detect. There have been very few studies that have looked at attitudes towards automation, and none that we know of that have looked at the consistency of attitudes towards automation. Participants rated their attitudes towards 15 different common household automated devices across two identical blocks in order to generate a consistency coefficient. They then rated their attitudes towards automation in general. The results showed that general and specific attitudes were moderately high, the consistency of attitudes towards specific types of automated devices was moderate at best, and that there was a correlation between the consistency of the specific attitudes and general attitudes. This correlation was stronger for female participants compared to male participants. We discuss methodological implications of these findings.