Perceived Similarities and Preferences for Consumer Electronics Products

A Swedish sample of 36 people judged the similarities of 20 objects, primarily information appliance products and services sometimes called consumer electronics, but also some common non-technological products. Multidimensional scaling showed that the choices of the participants were formed as three main regions: telephone services, luxuries of life and necessities of life. Axes interpretation gave similar results, with the addition of a biology/technology dimension. The participants also ranked these products in terms of their personal necessity and entertainment. The rankings corresponded largely to a pattern found for a larger US sample. One particular exception was education, which in Sweden was seen more favourably in terms of necessity and entertainment. Cluster analysis showed that education and type of employment could to some extent explain the choices relating to necessity and of entertainment.