Schweiker MarcelMaíra AndréuAl-Atrash FarahAl-Khatri HananAlprianti Rea RiskyAlsaad HayderAmin RuchaAmpatzi EleniArsano Alpha YacobAzar ElieBannazadeh BaharehBatagarawa AminaBecker SussanneBuonocore CarolinaCao BinChoi Joon-HoChun ChungyoonDaanen HeinDamiati Siti AisyahDaniel LyrianVecchi Renata DeDhaka ShivrajDomínguez-Amarillo SamuelDudkiewicz EdytaEdappilly Lakshmi PrabhaFernández-Agüera JesicaFolkerts MireilleFrijns ArjanGaona GabrielGarg VishalGauthier StephanieJabbari Shahla GhaffariHarimi DjamilaHellwig Runa T.Huebner Gesche M.Jin QuanJowkar MinaKim JungsooKing NelsonKingma BorisKoerniawan M. DonnyKolarik JakubKumar ShailendraKwok AlisonLamberts RobertoLaska MartaLee M.C. JeffreyLee YoonheeLindermayr VanessaMahaki MohammadbagherUdochukwu Marcel-OkaforMarín-Restrepo LauraMarquardsen AnnaFrancesco FranscescoMathur JyotirmayMino-Rodriguez IsabelMontazami AzadehMou DiMoujalled BassamNakajima MiaNg EdwardOkafor MarcellinusOlweny Mark R. O.Ouyang WanluAbreu Ana Lígia Papst dePérez-Fargallo AlexisRajapaksha IndrikaRamos GreiciRashid SaifReinhart Christoph F.Rivera Ma. IsabelSalmanzadeh MazyarSchakib-Ekbatan KarinSchiavon StefanoShooshtarian SalmanShukuya MasanoriSoebarto VeronicaSuhendri SuhendriTahsildoost MohammadTartarini FedericoTeli DespoinaTewari PriyamThapa SamarTrebilcock MaureenTrojan JörgTukur Ruqayyatu B.Voelker ConradYam YeungYang LiuZapata-Lancaster GabrielaZhai YongchaoZhu YingxinZomorodian ZahraSadat2020-03-022020-03-022020-01-10Schweiker, M. et al., 2020. Evaluating assumptions of scales for subjective assessment of thermal environments – Do laypersons perceive them the way, we researchers believe? Energy and Buildings, 211, p.109761.http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12280/2593People’s subjective response to any thermal environment is commonly investigated by using rating scales describing the degree of thermal sensation, comfort, and acceptability. Subsequent analyses of results col- lected in this way rely on the assumption that specific distances between verbal anchors placed on the scale exist and that relationships between verbal anchors from different dimensions that are assessed (e.g. thermal sensation and comfort) do not change. Another inherent assumption is that such scales are inde- pendent of the context in which they are used (climate zone, season, etc.). Despite their use worldwide, there is indication that contextual differences influence the way the scales are perceived and therefore question the reliability of the scales’ interpretation. To address this issue, a large international collabo- rative questionnaire study was conducted in 26 countries, using 21 different languages, which led to a dataset of 8225 questionnaires. Results, analysed by means of robust statistical techniques, revealed that only a subset of the responses are in accordance with the mentioned assumptions. Significant differences appeared between groups of participants in their perception of the scales, both in relation to distances of the anchors and relationships between scales. It was also found that respondents’ interpretations of scales changed with contextual factors, such as climate, season, and language. These findings highlight the need to carefully consider context-dependent factors in interpreting and reporting results from ther- mal comfort studies or post-occupancy evaluations, as well as to revisit the use of rating scales and the analysis methods used in thermal comfort studies to improve their reliability.enThermal comfortThermal acceptanceThermal sensationField studyScalesPost-Occupancy-Evaluation; Climatic zoneLanguageSeasonAdaptationDiversityArticle