7 tips for good survey questions
Summary
TLDRThis script offers seven essential tips for crafting effective survey questions. It emphasizes clarity and specificity to ensure consistent interpretation, the importance of asking questions respondents are willing to answer, and the need for truthful responses, addressing social desirability bias. It also advises on ensuring questions are answerable, avoiding double-barreled questions, eliminating biased language, and the crucial step of pre-testing questions. The goal is to create meaningful, non-wasteful survey questions that yield valuable insights.
Takeaways
- đ Ensure questions are clear and specific to avoid varied interpretations.
- đŁïž Craft questions that respondents are willing to answer, especially when personal topics are involved.
- đ Design questions to encourage truthful responses, considering social desirability bias.
- đ§ Make sure questions are answerable, taking into account the respondent's knowledge and memory.
- đ« Avoid double-barreled questions that combine two distinct inquiries into one.
- đĄïž Steer clear of biased terms or wording that could sway responses.
- đŹ Conduct pre-tests with real people to gather feedback and identify any issues with the questions.
- đ The goal is to create meaningful questions, not perfect ones, to make the most of survey resources.
- â° Surveys are time and cost-intensive; thus, it's crucial to avoid wasting resources on poorly designed questions.
Q & A
What is the first criterion for a good survey question according to the transcript?
-A good question is one where all respondents interpret the question in a consistent manner.
Why is it important to ensure clarity and specificity in survey questions?
-Ensuring clarity and specificity helps to avoid different interpretations of what constitutes a 'serious crime' or any other term that might vary among respondents.
What is an example of a personal question that might make people unwilling to answer?
-Questions about sexual behavior or drug use are examples of personal questions that might make people unwilling to answer due to privacy concerns.
How can survey designers encourage truthful responses to personal questions?
-Survey designers can encourage truthful responses by carefully crafting questions, explaining the need for the information, and assuring respondents of confidentiality or anonymity.
What is social desirability and how can it affect survey responses?
-Social desirability is a psychological phenomenon where respondents might answer questions in a way that they believe will be viewed favorably by others, potentially leading to dishonest or exaggerated responses.
Why is it important for survey questions to be answerable by respondents?
-Questions should be answerable to ensure that respondents can provide accurate information, avoiding vague answers like 'I'm not sure' that do not contribute to meaningful data collection.
What is a double-barreled question and why should they be avoided in surveys?
-A double-barreled question is one that combines two different parts into a single question, making it difficult for respondents to answer if they only agree with one part. They should be avoided because they can lead to confusion and inaccurate responses.
How can biased terms or wording in survey questions affect the results?
-Biased terms or wording can lead respondents to answer based on their perception of the term rather than the actual question, resulting in different answers depending on the language used.
What is the purpose of pre-testing survey questions?
-Pre-testing survey questions helps to identify any confusion or unexpected responses, allowing for adjustments to be made before the full survey is conducted.
Why is it crucial to avoid wasting time and resources on bad survey questions?
-Bad survey questions can lead to inaccurate or unusable data, wasting the time and resources of both the survey creators and respondents, and potentially leading to incorrect conclusions.
What is the ultimate goal of creating good survey questions as per the transcript?
-The ultimate goal is to create questions that elicit meaningful responses, ensuring that the survey results are valuable and contribute to the intended research or decision-making process.
Outlines
đ Developing Good Survey Questions
The paragraph emphasizes the importance of crafting clear and effective survey questions. It outlines seven tips for achieving this: ensuring questions are consistently interpreted, maintaining respondent willingness to answer, encouraging truthful responses, verifying that respondents can answer the questions, avoiding double-barreled questions, steering clear of biased terms, and pre-testing questions. The paragraph uses examples to illustrate the potential issues with poorly designed questions and provides alternative phrasings to improve clarity and response quality.
Mindmap
Keywords
đĄSurvey Question
đĄConsistent Interpretation
đĄWillingness to Answer
đĄTruthfulness
đĄRespondent's Knowledge
đĄDouble Barreled Questions
đĄBiased Terms
đĄPre-testing
đĄMeaningful Responses
đĄConfidentiality
đĄSocial Desirability
Highlights
A good survey question is one where all respondents interpret the question in a consistent manner.
Ensure questions are clear and specific to avoid different interpretations.
People should be willing to answer the questions in a survey.
Personal questions require careful crafting and assurance of confidentiality.
Survey questions should encourage respondents to answer truthfully.
Social desirability can influence the truthfulness of responses.
Rephrase questions to mitigate the impact of social desirability.
Ensure respondents can actually answer the questions based on their knowledge.
Avoid double-barreled questions that combine two different parts.
Split complex questions into separate, single-part questions for clarity.
Avoid biased terms or wording that could lead to different answers.
Different terminologies can significantly affect survey responses.
Pre-testing questions on real people is crucial for identifying potential issues.
Feedback from pre-testing helps refine questions for better responses.
The goal is to create questions that elicit meaningful responses.
Surveys should not waste time and resources on ineffective questions.
Following these tips can help craft clear and useful survey questions.
Transcripts
When weâre conducting a survey we would like to make sure weâre asking questions
that will collect accurate and useful information.
But it isnât always obvious what makes a survey question a good survey question.
Here are 7 tips that can help in developing good survey questions.
ONE: A âgood questionâ is one where all respondents interpret the question in a consistent
manner.
That is not always easy to achieve.
The question âHave you ever been the victim of a serious crime?â
might be interpreted differently by different people.
Is getting your car stolen a serious crime?
Probably.
What about your bicycle?
What about your skateboard?
Make sure your questions are as clear and as specific as possible.
TWO: A âgood questionâ is also one where people are WILLING to answer the question.
If a survey asks about very personal things such as sexual behavior or drug use you might
find lots of people unwilling to answer such questions.
If you do need to ask personal questions you need to craft those questions carefully and
explain to the respondent why you need this information and assure them that youâll
keep their responses confidential or even anonymous.
THREE: A âgood questionâ is one that a respondent will answer truthfully.
Letâs take the following question as an example:
Do you own a library card?
Seems clear enough and it doesnât seem too personal, but surprisingly lots of respondents
might say yes even when they donât have library card.
Why is that?
Itâs something called social desirability.
Reading books and being well read is socially desirable, so someone who never goes to the
library might not want to admit that they donât have a library card for fear they
might be judged negatively.
It might be better to ask the question this way:
âSome people get books from a library, others buy them from bookstores or online, do you
currently have a library card or not?â
That might sound a little awkward but you are likely to get a more truthful answer.
FOUR: A âgood questionâ is one that a respondent can ACTUALLY answer.
If you asked some one how much money they spend on groceries in an average month you
might be surprised how many people would say they werenât sure.
Make sure people have the knowledge or information to answer your survey question.
FIVE: Avoid double barreled questions.
These are questions that ask for a single answer to a question that really has two different
parts.
For example, letâs say you were asked the following question:
âDo you believe the United States should spend more money on education and less money
locking up non-violent criminals?â
Thatâs a double-barreled question.
Respondents who agree with one part but not the other will have trouble answering this
question.
You should break that question into two separate questions.
SIX: Avoid biased terms or wording.
This is probably the hardest thing to do when writing questions.
Should you use the term Obamacare or use âThe Affordable Care Actâ?
Should your use the term âWelfareâ or should you say âAssistance to the Poorâ?
It isnât obvious which is the better terminology, but different terms will likely lead to different
answers.
Surveys will sometimes give one question to half the sample and a slightly different worded
question to another half to see how respondents react to the different wording.
SEVEN: Pre-test your questions.
This is the most important tip.
You need to try out your questions on real people and then ask for feedback.
Were they confused by a question, did they answer in a way that surprised you.
Pre-testing will help you find out if you have any problems with your questions.
Of course there is no such thing as a perfect survey question.
Instead our goal is to create questions that elicit meaningful responses.
Surveys take time and money.
We donât want to waste our time and the respondentâs time asking bad questions.
Following these 7 tips can help you craft clear and useful survey questions.
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