{"id":36661,"date":"2021-01-11T10:57:40","date_gmt":"2021-01-11T09:57:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/idsurvey.fluidhub.it\/5-survey-errors-that-demotivate-the-respondent\/"},"modified":"2024-03-27T15:44:34","modified_gmt":"2024-03-27T14:44:34","slug":"5-survey-errors-that-demotivate-the-respondent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.idsurvey.com\/en\/5-survey-errors-that-demotivate-the-respondent\/","title":{"rendered":"5 survey errors that demotivate the respondent"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Writing survey questions may seem an easy task but it really is an important phase of your research and you can frequently occur in survey errors.\u00a0<strong>H<\/strong><strong>ow you write questions may determine your data collection success or failure.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s why we want to list the 5 most common survey errors: note them down and stay away from them!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Common survey errors<\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>1. Response bias<\/h3>\n<p>As ambiguous words don\u2019t have a univocal interpretation, they confuse the respondent and corrupt survey data. Let\u2019s make an example:<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cWhere do you like to shop\u201d?<\/em><\/p>\n<p>In this case, the faulty word is \u201clike\u201d: it\u2019s too generic. With \u201clike\u201d do you mean shops where the staff is nicer? Where prices are more convenient? Or where the atmosphere is best?<\/p>\n<p>Why you have to avoid errors and biases:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>\u00a0Each respondent will interpret the question differently<\/strong>\u00a0so answers cannot be compared<\/li>\n<li>The respondent<strong>\u00a0will not answer rationally<\/strong>\u00a0but he will pick an answer he thinks looks more coherent to his situation<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>2. Double negations, passive, too complex questions<\/h3>\n<p><em>Keep it simple<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 that\u2019s what communication gurus say. Any complex structure can\u00a0<strong>negatively influence your survey research<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Example:<em>\u00a0\u201cIn which store you prefer not to shop?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>This same question can be phrased as:<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cWhich store do you shop in?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>In this second query we:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Avoided negation;<\/li>\n<li>Removed \u201cto prefer\u201d;<\/li>\n<li>Shortened the phrase from 8 to 6 words<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Our tips: review all questions a<strong>voiding negations, passive verbs, long wording, and complex verbs.<\/strong>\u00a0The respondent will focus on the question more and you\u2019ll increase your response rate.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>3. Double questions<\/h3>\n<p>When you write a question it\u2019s common to ask for multiple things.<\/p>\n<p>Example:\u00a0<em>\u201cIn next elections, you will vote for the candidate who will increase public expenses on welfare and instruction?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>In this case, if you vote for a candidate who supports instruction (and not welfare), you will not be able to answer and you will be forced to give an answer that is not true.<\/p>\n<p>So, double questions\u00a0<strong>increase the possibility to get ambiguous answers:<\/strong>\u00a0if possible, avoid them.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>4. Absolute questions<\/h3>\n<p>With the word\u00a0<em>absolute,<\/em>\u00a0we indicate all those questions that include a \u201cnever\u201d, \u201calways\u201d, \u201cevery\u201d\u2026 This type of question often leads to statistically useless answers.<\/p>\n<p>Example: \u201cDo you always have breakfast? (Yes\/No).<\/p>\n<p>In the example, we force the respondent to<strong>\u00a0give a generic answer<\/strong>\u00a0(all those who skip breakfast once in a while will be forced to answer \u201cno\u201d) and we give to the question\u00a0<strong>too many possible interpretations<\/strong>\u00a0(is brunch considered breakfast? What if I just have coffee?).<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>5. Open-end questions? Yes, but\u2026<\/h3>\n<p>Open-end questions collect more detailed data and for this reason, we need to use them.<strong>\u00a0But use them carefully!<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s put ourselves in the respondent\u2019s shoes: how would you feel when you notice that the majority of questions include empty spaces to fill-in?<\/p>\n<p>Two possible reactions:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>he joins the survey but as he proceeds into it he\u2019ll give<strong>\u00a0more and more summary answers<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>he will drop the survey<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>To sum up, we suggest to carefully distribute your open-end questions only when you need a detailed answer.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><del><a href=\"https:\/\/www.idsurvey.com\/en\/demo-request\/\">Discover IdSurvey<\/a><\/del><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Writing survey questions may seem an easy task but it really is an important phase of your research and you can frequently occur in survey errors.\u00a0How you write questions may determine your data collection success or failure.\u00a0 That\u2019s why we want to list the 5 most common survey errors: note them down and stay away [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":36268,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"wl_entities_gutenberg":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[],"wl_entity_type":[86],"class_list":["post-36661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research-world","wl_entity_type-article"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v26.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>5 survey errors that demotivate the respondent - IdSurvey<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"how you write questions may determine your survey success or failure. 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