Jingle-jangle fallacies are erroneous assumptions that either two different things are the same because they bear the same name (jingle fallacy); or two identical or almost identical things are different because they are labeled differently (jangle fallacy).[1][2][3] In research, a jangle fallacy is the inference that two measures (e.g., tests, scales) with different names measure different constructs. By comparison, a jingle fallacy is the assumption that two measures which are called by the same name capture the same construct.[4][5][6]
An example of the jangle fallacy can be found in tests designed to assess emotional intelligence. Some of these tests measure merely personality or regular IQ-tests.[7] An example of the jingle fallacy is that personality and values are sometimes conflated and treated as the same construct.[8] Jingle and jangle fallacies make it challenging to review literatures for meta-analysis. Machine learning tools have been created to discover relevant papers even when the same construct is named differently in different articles. [9]
^Thorndike, Edward (1904). An Introduction to the Theory of Mental and Social Measures. New York, NY: Teachers College, Columbia University. pp. 10–11.
^Higgs, Malcolm; Scott, Lichtenstein (2010). "Exploring the 'Jingle Fallacy': a study of personality and values". Journal of General Management. 36 (1): 43–61.