Order Effects

In presenting information to individuals or groups, or in assessing how individuals or groups feel or think about an issue, researchers face the possibility that the order of materials might have a significant influence on the behavior, decisions, or evaluations of interest. A number of research streams have developed over the years to address these issues, known as order effects, as they are of interest for both practical (e.g., the desire to reduce bias in responses) and theoretical reasons (e.g., testing theoretical notions about the stability or strength of attitudes).

In persuasion research, message and argument order effects refer to changes in the influence of messages and arguments on attitude when the order of messages or argument presentation is varied. In survey research, two types of ...