An Empirical Analysis of the Coherence Between Fuzzy Rating Scale- and Likert Scale-Based Responses to Questionnaires

In dealing with questionnaires concerning satisfaction, quality perception, attitude, judgement, etc., the fuzzy rating scale has been introduced as a flexible way to respond to questionnaires' items. Designs for this type of questionnaires are often based on Likert scales. This paper aims to examine three different real-life examples in which respondents have been allowed to doubly answer: in accordance with either a fuzzy rating scale or a Likert one. By considering a minimum distance-based criterion, each of the fuzzy rating scale answers is associated with one of the Likert scale labels. The percentages of coincidences between the two responses in the double answer are computed by the criterion-based association. Some empirical conclusions are drawn from the computation of such percentages.