Drawbacks to integer scoring for ordered categorical data

Linear rank tests are widely used when testing for independence against stochastic order in a 2 x J contingency table with two treatments and J ordered outcome levels. For this purpose, numerical scores are assigned, possibly by default, to the J outcome levels. When the choice of scores is not apparent, integer (equally spaced) scores are often assigned. We show that this practice generally leads to unnecessarily conservative tests. The use of slightly perturbed scores will result in a less conservative and uniformly more powerful test.