The context effect observed in SWTP is especially noteworthy, because the
linguistic convention that allows words such as ‘important’ or ‘satisfying’ to be
understood in a relative sense does not apply to the dollar scale. To appreciate the
difference between scales that allow relativity and scales that do not, consider the
questions: ‘‘What is the size of an eagle, in meters?’’, ‘‘What is the size of a
subcompact, in meters?’’ Of course, there is no reason to expect any effect of
category on answers to this question. A context effect on a size judgment expressed
in absolute units indicates a visual illusion}a change in the underlying perception,
not in the language used to describe it. By the same logic, the finding of a context
effect on a dollar measure implies that the evaluation itself, not only the expression
of it, is altered by the comparison.