Conducting experiments on cultural aspects of document design: Why and how?

To answer the question whether adapting a document’s characteristics to the culture in which it has to function is wise, one can conduct experiments in which cultural difference is one of the main variables. In this article, we discuss three problems that researchers encounter when conducting such experiments. First, employing nationality to operationalize cultural differences leads to problems in the interpretation of any difference in response. Cultures differ from each other on a large number of dimensions, with each dimension constituting an alternative explanation for any difference in response between members from different cultures. Second, constructing documents and measurement instruments that are equivalent in both cultures is difficult. The question is whether documents can have equivalent meanings, and whether questionnaires measure the same concept in both cultures. Third, members of certain cultures are reluctant to use the ends of rating scales, whereas members of other cultures use them freely. For each of these problems, we present solutions.