Comparative judgments as a function of the direction of comparison versus word order

Previous findings showed that comparative judgments in survey questions are largely affected by the direction of comparison, that is, whether the question asks respondents to compare A (subject) to B (referent) or B to A. These asymmetry effects were attributed to the dynamics that respondents attend differently to the features of an object depending on whether it functions as the subject or the referent of a comparison. Most research on direction-of-comparison effects, however, confounded direction of comparison and word order so that the subject is typically presented first and the referent second. This article disentangles this confound and investigates the separate impact of the direction of comparison and word order. The results replicate earlier findings regarding direction-of-comparison effects and found no evidence for a systematic impact of word order. Even when the referent of the comparison is presented first and the subject is presented last, direction-of-comparison effects are observed. The findings are discussed in terms of applied and theoretical significance.