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About attitudes and perceptions: finding the proper way to consider latent variables in discrete choice models

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Abstract

We provide an in-depth theoretical discussion about the differences between individual-specific latent constructs (representing attitudes, for example, but also other characteristics such as values or personality traits) and alternative-specific latent constructs (that may represent perceptions) affecting the choice-making process of individuals; we also carry out an empirical exercise to analyze their effects. This discussion is of importance, as the majority of papers considering attitudinal latent variables just take these as attributes affecting directly the utility of a certain alternative, while systematic taste variations are rarely considered and perceptions are mostly ignored. The results of our case study show that perceptions may indeed affect the decision making process and that they are able to capture a significant part of the variability that is normally explained by alternative specific constants. Furthermore, our results indicate that attitudes may be a reason for systematic taste variations, and that a proper categorization of latent variables, in accordance with underlying theory, may outperform the customary assumption of linearity.

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Notes

  1. Formally speaking these definitions do not only apply to attitudes and perceptions but to all kinds of individual-specific and alternative-specific latent attributes, respectively. Nevertheless, in this work we focus on attitudes and perceptions, as these are the most representative ones. We are grateful to an unknown referee for pointing this out to us.

  2. The authors are aware that some papers have relaxed this restrictive condition (e.g. Atasoy et al. 2010 or Kamargianni et al. 2014), but the majority of papers on HDC just rely on it.

  3. Regional trains should not be confused with commuter rail. In Germany, regional trains operate over long interurban distances, stopping more and over shorter distances than intercity trains. It is possible to travel across the country using only regional trains.

  4. The Leibniz-Gemeinschaft is one of the shelter associations of publicly funded research institutes in Germany.

  5. Because of the way the statistic was provided, as well as to avoid minuscule numbers, it was necessary to use numbers for the overall network.

  6. It is necessary to rely on heuristic criteria to define the structure of the LV model. This way, we used a Varimax rotation—to ease the identification of each variable with a single factor—and associated the indicators with a given latent construct when the absolute value of the loading factor was greater than 0.5.

  7. For each choice situation the alternative-specific LV depends on the alternatives. Therefore we have three LV (Comfort, Stress-free and Reliability) associated with the status quo alternative and another three related to the new option offered to the individual.

  8. We attempted it using PythonBiogeme, but observed that the optimization algorithm interrupted the computation without reaching convergence after approximately 3 weeks (unsuccessful linesearch).

  9. A plausible explanation for the absence of correlation among the repeated responses of each individual relies in the fact that the alternatives presented were not related to a specific transport mode.

  10. At a 5 % significance level (1.645) performing a one-tailed test as estimator signs were known a priori.

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Acknowledgments

We gratefully acknowledge the support of BecasChile given by the Chilean Council for Scientific and Technological Research (CONYCIT), the Millennium Institute in Complex Engineering Systems (ICM: P05-004F; FONDECYT: FB016), the All Latitudes and Cultures BRT Centre of Excellence funded by the Volvo Research and Educational Foundations, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and the Centre for Sustainable Urban Development, CEDEUS (Conicyt/Fondap/15110020). We are also grateful for the very good and constructive comments of three unknown referees. A preliminary version of this paper was presented at the 3rd hEART Symposium of the European Association for Research in Transportation, Leeds, UK, 10–12, September, 2014.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Energy, Transportation and Environment Department, Deutsches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Berlin, Germany

    Francisco J. Bahamonde-Birke, Uwe Kunert & Heike Link

  2. Technische Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Francisco J. Bahamonde-Birke

  3. Department of Transport Engineering and Logistics, Centre for Urban Sustainable Development (CEDEUS), Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile

    Juan de Dios Ortúzar

Authors
  1. Francisco J. Bahamonde-Birke
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  2. Uwe Kunert
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  3. Juan de Dios Ortúzar
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Correspondence to Francisco J. Bahamonde-Birke.

Appendix

Appendix

Sample screen of the SP-Experiment

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Bahamonde-Birke, F.J., Kunert, U., Link, H. et al. About attitudes and perceptions: finding the proper way to consider latent variables in discrete choice models. Transportation 44, 475–493 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11116-015-9663-5

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