A multiple‐stimulus‐without‐replacement assessment for sexual partners: Test–retest stability

Researchers asked college students to rank pictures of possible sexual partners.

They used the MSWO method: look at all photos, pick the top one, then repeat.

Two months later the same students did the task again to see if ranks stayed put.

Most students kept the same partner order on the second test.

The hierarchy stayed stable, so the MSWO worked for social reinforcers too.

Tassé et al. (2013) tested adults with ID/DD and also found stable social picks.

They used paired-choice instead of MSWO, but the idea extends: social likes stay put.

Morris et al. (2023) later showed you can track approach/avoid counts in one short session.

Together the papers say: pick your tool—MSWO, paired choice, or simple counts—and trust the ranks you get.

If you run social-skills groups or dating programs, you can use MSWO to find who each client wants to talk to or sit with. Repeat the quick photo sort next month and the top picks will likely stay the same, so you can plan reinforcement without starting over.