What question did this study set out to answer?

To examine whether holistic versus analytic thinking styles moderate response fluency, psychological discomfort, and downstream behaviors across continuous and dichotomous scale formats.

August 16, 2026Personality and Social Psychology BulletinOpen Access

Continuous or Dichotomous Scales? Holistic and Analytic Thinking Styles Influence Response Fluency to Different Scale Formats and Trait-Consistent Behavior

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Authors

DSDavid Santos DGDilney Gonçalves HLHongyi Lin

Discussion

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Overview

Experimental series reveals thinking styles alter response fluency and behavior across personality scales, indicating survey designs must account for cognitive differences.

Key Points

To examine whether holistic versus analytic thinking styles moderate response fluency, psychological discomfort, and downstream behaviors across continuous and dichotomous scale formats.
Conducted six multi-method experimental studies across diverse personality measures (total N = 3,636).
Evaluated measured thinking styles, manipulated thinking styles, and cultural proxies across dichotomous, 3-point, 6-point, and continuous scale formats.
Holistic thinkers exhibited significantly greater response fluency and less psychological discomfort when answering on continuous scales compared to dichotomous scales.
Matching an individual's thinking style to an appropriate scale format substantially influenced subsequent behavioral intentions and trait-consistent actions.

Cite This Study

Santos et al. (2026) studied this question.

synapsesocial.com/papers/6a817a4cf2fb91fc834adf60 https://doi.org/10.1177/01461672261474563

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August 16, 2026Personality and Social Psychology BulletinOpen Access

Continuous or Dichotomous Scales? Holistic and Analytic Thinking Styles Influence Response Fluency to Different Scale Formats and Trait-Consistent Behavior

View Full Paper

Ask AI

Bookmark

Authors

DSDavid Santos DGDilney Gonçalves HLHongyi Lin

Discussion

Member takes

Overview

Experimental series reveals thinking styles alter response fluency and behavior across personality scales, indicating survey designs must account for cognitive differences.

Key Points

To examine whether holistic versus analytic thinking styles moderate response fluency, psychological discomfort, and downstream behaviors across continuous and dichotomous scale formats.
Conducted six multi-method experimental studies across diverse personality measures (total N = 3,636).
Evaluated measured thinking styles, manipulated thinking styles, and cultural proxies across dichotomous, 3-point, 6-point, and continuous scale formats.
Holistic thinkers exhibited significantly greater response fluency and less psychological discomfort when answering on continuous scales compared to dichotomous scales.
Matching an individual's thinking style to an appropriate scale format substantially influenced subsequent behavioral intentions and trait-consistent actions.

Cite This Study

Santos et al. (2026) studied this question.

synapsesocial.com/papers/6a817a4cf2fb91fc834adf60 https://doi.org/10.1177/01461672261474563

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