Swipe Right to Measure: Novel Touchscreen Response Scale Format for Textual and AI Avatar Video Administration

This preregistered experiment examined the feasibility of administering psychological scales in two novel dichotomous touchscreen-focused response formats inspired by the swipe-based interface known from dating apps: the textual Swipe scale and the Swipe-Video scale using short AI-avatar videos. We compared them to a standard dichotomous Likert scale in an online US sample (N = 602). A strict measurement invariance was established across all the administration methods. The influence of the administration methods on internal consistency, criterion validity, and nonresponse rates was nonsignificant. Swipe-Video was much slower than both other methods; the textual Swipe scale was only slightly slower than the Likert format. Respondents’ ratings of enjoyment, ease-of-use, and intention-to-use did not differ significantly across methods. Overall, swipe-based dichotomous formats – including the AI video-based administration – appear viable alternatives to a standard dichotomous Likert scale leading to equivalent scale scores, albeit with longer completion times, particularly for video administration.