This or That Rating Question

When and Why to Use

Use this to gather nuanced preferences across paired options using a rating scale. Ideal for:

Capturing degrees of preference between two alternatives
Visualizing directional lean with intensity
Behavioral or brand comparison tasks

Supports slider, button, or star-based input styles with configurable point scales.

Chat Experience

Each row shows a pair of options with a slider or buttons between them
The midpoint represents neutrality; endpoints indicate strong preference
Don't know option appears if configured

Button style

Slider style

Traditional Experience

Pairs are displayed in tabular layout with rating scale between them
Works well with remote or keyboard navigation
Layout adapts to available screen width

Button style

Slider style on mobile

Configuration Options

Option	Type	Required	Default	Description
`question`	`string`	yes	-	The prompt shown to the user
`row_options`	`List[List[str]]`	yes	-	List of 2-option comparisons per row
`row_name`	`string`	no	"scale"	Label for the row dimension in reporting
`number_of_points`	`int`	no	5	Number of scale points (e.g., 5 for -2 to +2)
`first_point`	`int`	no	1	Starting value for scale (optional)
`style`	`string`	no	"slider"	"slider", "button", or "star" input style
`dont_know_option`	`str`	no	""	Optional "Don't know" response per pair
`randomize`	`bool`	no	`False`	Randomize row order
`default`	`Dict[str, int]`	no	random	Default values for test data
`recodes`	`Dict[str, str]`	no	-	Map ranges or raw scores to grouped labels
`image`	`MediaItem`	no	-	Optional image above the task
`custom_validator`	`Callable[[Dict[str, int]], str	None]`	no	-
`tags`	s.tag()	no	-	Used in token substitution and reporting

Example Code

Basic usage:

s.this_or_that_rating_question( "Which of the following do you prefer?", number_of_points=5, row_options=[ ["Apples", "Oranges"], ["Coke", "Pepsi"], ["Dogs", "Cats"], ["Winter", "Summer"] ] )

With recodes:

s.this_or_that_rating_question( "Rate your preference for each pair", number_of_points=7, row_options=[["Tea", "Coffee"], ["Netflix", "YouTube"]], recodes={ "1": "Strongly Left", "4": "Neutral", "7": "Strongly Right" } )

With custom validation:

s.this_or_that_rating_question( "Indicate which you prefer in each pair", number_of_points=5, row_options=[["Texting", "Calling"], ["Books", "Podcasts"]], custom_validator=lambda d: "Please vary your responses" if len(set(d.values())) == 1 else None )

Notes

Use an odd number of points to include a neutral midpoint
The left option in each pair anchors the low end of the scale
recodes are useful for bucketing scale values into preference categories
custom_validator can prevent straight-lining or require balance