I've been trying to use Google Scholar to find something on this issue, but I fear I may not have found anything due to using incorrect terms. I am looking for any work which looks at rating systems and people's use of them (I hope this is the right forum). We are all familiar with the idea of rating things numerically, like out of a scale of 5. But it is also possible for people to rate things relatively ie A > B and B > C. Other preferences can then be inferred, ie A > C. In certain instances, where people may be reluctant to provide low ratings, these relative valuations may therefore be useful. I am wondering if this is something which has been looked at in any work that anyone knows of? Is 'relative valuation' the correct term for this?
Does work exist on relative valuations versus numeric valuations?
terminology;experiment design