Claims

Short et al.'s (1976) four bipolar scales are questionable as a social presence measure because they lack construct validation and assess attitudes toward the medium rather than perceived 'realness'

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · review r2 · q2
Currency · newest study 2022 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims

Reading the evidence codes

q is the design tier, i the impact, n the sample, and the kind with its r the rigour judged within that kind: what each code means.

This claim: no standardized effect is recorded in observations/ for it yet, so no benchmark reading is possible.

q2 i? Short et al.'s four seven-point bipolar scales were never construct-validated and measure persons' attitude toward a communication medium rather than the degree of perceived 'realness' of other persons, yielding a relative rather than absolute measure. → Karel Kreijns 2022

Evidence

Karel Kreijns 2022

Karel Kreijns, Kate Xu, Joshua Weidlich. (2022). Social Presence: Conceptualization and Measurement. Educational Psychology Review. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-021-09623-8

q2 · i? · review · r2

The review's re-analysis of the original 1976 measurement approach, which asked respondents to rate media on unsociable–sociable, insensitive–sensitive, cold–warm, and impersonal–personal scales. It also notes Bradner and Mark (2001) called the scales a relative, not absolute, measure.

"the four bipolar scales of Short et al. (1976) to measure social presence is questionable for two reasons: (1) there was no construct validation of the measurement instrument, and (2) the measurement instrument did not assess the degree of perceived “realness” of other persons but rather persons ’ attitude toward a communication medium"

Discussion

Page metadata
Field Value
type claim
id short-et-al-bipolar-scales-measurement-flaws
title Short et al.'s (1976) four bipolar scales are questionable as a social presence measure because they lack construct validation and assess attitudes toward the medium rather than perceived 'realness'
description Short et al.'s (1976) four bipolar scales are questionable as a social presence measure because they lack construct validation and assess attitudes toward the medium rather than perceived 'realness'
status review
evidence_strength moderate
newest_evidence 2022
generated by process:wiki-ingest on 2026-10-21
trust unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content
sources 1 — karel-kreijns-2022

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