How do you avoid leading or loaded questions that influence the answers?

由人工智能和领英社区提供技术支持

Survey research is a powerful tool to gather data and insights from your target audience, but it also comes with some challenges. One of the most common pitfalls is asking leading or loaded questions that influence the answers and create survey bias. In this article, you will learn how to avoid this mistake and design more neutral and effective questions for your survey.

此文章中的业界达人

由社区从 3 条内容中精选。了解更多

Ankesh Saxena

30x Top Voices | Podcaster @ The Collaborative Canvas | Founder - TRP Magazine | Learn and Grow | Market Research |…
Ding Wang

Program Developer | Helping innovators apply LLM in their survey and reporting projects

1 What are leading or loaded questions?

Leading or loaded questions are questions that suggest a desired or expected answer, or that imply a value judgment or assumption about the topic. For example, "Do you agree that our product is the best in the market?" is a leading question that implies a positive opinion and encourages agreement. "How often do you waste time on social media?" is a loaded question that assumes a negative behavior and induces guilt or defensiveness. These types of questions can skew your results and reduce the validity and reliability of your survey.

添加您的观点

Ankesh Saxena

30x Top Voices | Podcaster @ The Collaborative Canvas | Founder - TRP Magazine | Learn and Grow | Market Research | Personal Branding | Consumer Insights | Sales | ESOMAR member | MRSI Member |
举报内容
To avoid leading or loaded questions, use neutral, clear, and concise language. Ensure questions are balanced without implying a preferred answer. Avoid emotionally charged or biased wording. Test questions in a pretest to identify and correct any subtle biases. Seek feedback from diverse reviewers to ensure fairness. Focus on objective phrasing and offer balanced response options to accurately capture respondents' true opinions.

已翻译

赞
Dr. Blake Curtis, Sc.D

Cybersecurity Governance Advisor | Research Scientist | CISSP, CISM, CISA, CRISC, CGEIT, CDPSE, COBIT, COSO | ??? Top 25 Cybersecurity Leaders in 2024 | Speaker | Author | Editor | Licensed Skills Consultant | Educator
举报内容
Leading questions encourage respondents to answer in a specific manner & often contain language that subtly influences them to agree with the statement. Example: "Do you agree that our product is the best in the market?" This implies that the product is the best, leading respondents toward agreement, even if they might not fully share that opinion. These questions distort data by pushing respondents toward specific answers, which may not accurately reflect their true opinions. This results in data that is not representative of the population. Word your questions neutrally without implying any judgment or expectation. Avoid adjectives or adverbs that carry connotations, such as "best," "worst," "waste," or "important."

已翻译

赞

2 How to spot leading or loaded questions?

One way to spot leading or loaded questions is to check if they contain any words or phrases that indicate a preference, imply a norm, evoke an emotion, suggest a cause or consequence, introduce a comparison, or limit the range of options. Examples include words like "obviously", "should", "sad", "because", "better", and "only".

添加您的观点

3 How to avoid leading or loaded questions?

To avoid leading or loaded questions, it is important to use neutral and precise language that does not imply any bias or expectation. Open-ended questions that allow respondents to express their own opinions or experiences are preferable to closed-ended questions that force them to choose from a predefined set of options. Balanced scales with equal numbers of positive and negative options should be used, and extreme or vague terms such as "always", "never", "very", or "somewhat" should be avoided. Factual and specific questions that focus on observable and measurable aspects of the topic should be asked, rather than subjective and general questions that rely on interpretations and judgments. Additionally, clear and simple questions that avoid ambiguity, confusion, or double meanings should be used, as well as multiple questions that cover different aspects of the topic instead of single questions that combine several issues or dimensions.

添加您的观点

Ding Wang

Program Developer | Helping innovators apply LLM in their survey and reporting projects
举报内容
This is all great advice! One thing I'd add is to think about the order of your questions. Sometimes, even a well-worded question can influence how someone answers later questions. For example, if you ask a bunch of questions about how great a company is before asking about their customer service, people might be more likely to rate the customer service higher. It's like you've already put them in a positive mood. Mixing up the order of your questions can help with this.

已翻译

赞

4 How to test your questions for bias?

Even if you follow the guidelines, you may still have some questions that are unintentionally leading or loaded. To test for bias, you can pretest your questions with a small sample of your target population and ask for feedback on their clarity, neutrality, and relevance. Additionally, piloting your survey with a larger sample can help analyze the distribution, variability, and reliability of responses. Furthermore, comparing your questions to similar ones from other sources can reveal any significant differences or discrepancies. Lastly, it is beneficial to review your questions with an expert or peer familiar with the topic and survey design to identify any potential sources of bias or influence.

添加您的观点

5 How to deal with bias in your results?

Even if you avoid leading or loaded questions in your survey, you may still encounter bias in your results due to sampling errors, response errors, nonresponse errors, or measurement errors. To reduce this bias, adjust the sample size and selection criteria to ensure that the sample is representative of the population and has enough power and precision to detect meaningful differences or relationships. Improve response rate and quality by using appropriate incentives, reminders, modes, and formats for your survey. Additionally, reduce measurement error by using valid and reliable instruments, scales, and indicators for your survey. Finally, report results with transparency and honesty by acknowledging any limitations, assumptions, or uncertainties in your survey and providing appropriate confidence intervals, error margins, or significance tests for estimates or findings.

添加您的观点

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?

添加您的观点

Survey Research

+ 关注

给文章评分

我们借助人工智能创建了此文章。您认为这篇文章怎么样？

很棒不太好

举报此文章

查看全部

How do you avoid leading or loaded questions that influence the answers?

1

2

3

4

5

6

1 What are leading or loaded questions?

2 How to spot leading or loaded questions?

3 How to avoid leading or loaded questions?

4 How to test your questions for bias?

5 How to deal with bias in your results?

6 Here’s what else to consider

Survey Research

给文章评分

感谢您的反馈

更多Survey Research相关文章

更多相关阅读内容