How many words? Precision‐based sample sizes for assessment at‐a‐distance

Abstract Assessment at‐a‐distance studies often assess whether a leader is high or low on a score by whether or not the leader's score is a standard deviation higher or lower than the reference group mean, both as a way of assessing an individual leader and of comparing two or more leaders. This practice assumes that scores derived from the minimum number of words are sufficiently precise and that comparisons with the reference group mean are meaningful. However, no information on the precision of these estimates has been available. The precision estimates generated in this study provide new tools to more robustly assess differences between leaders, including in cases where the original data is not available or not appropriate for other statistical tests.