Principle 3: Creating Better Social Issue Questions - Part 3

Note: This article is part of a series. I recommend reading the intro, principle 1 (part 1 and part 2 ), principle 2 , and principle 3 (part 1 and part 2 ) before continuing below.

In the last article, I discuss the attitudinal and bias questions that you should consider asking when trying to assess the perspectives of your target audience. Keep in mind, attitudes and bias are shaped by lived experiences, influences of trusted messengers and the media the individual consumes.?

Now it's time to cover questions about taking action. This is an area of research that I find there is another opportunity for social desirability—meaning desirable interest in taking action but little interest in actually performing the action at the request of the organization.?

Here is what we often find when asking action questions around social issues:

Asking yes or no action questions can lead to false positives.?

When asked if they’d take a specific action on behalf of an issue or organization,, it’s easy for a research participant to say yes—because that’s the desirable response. It may be that the individual has good intentions or they can imagine themselves taking the action. However, we don’t get the full context around whether or not the action will actually occur given the participant’s lifestyle, family and work scenarios.?

The path of least resistance will shine through.?

Individuals who have not been engaged in the issue are not likely to take drastic steps to be engaged and involved. This is something organizations and agencies seeking to build awareness and defining a call to action for the public often misunderstand. Participants are most likely to take the path of least resistance—that is, how they can get the most out of taking action for doing the least amount of effort, at least on the onset. Asking questions about high-level, high-expectation participation and action will yield minimal true engagement but may result in a positive answer in a survey due to social desirability.

It's all about the moment, milestone and timeline.?

When thinking about actions, the public needs tangible, in-the-moment actions, where social progress can be made and hopefully observed. Questions that talk about scenarios that are often too far in the future or project a sense of accomplishment in solving a social issue problem are not ideal. On the contrary, questions about realistic, in-the-moment actions affecting key milestones for social progress will help the individual answer in a realistic way and within the context of the scenarios and issues that affect them today (inflation, economics, jobs, family and health).

Given these situations, how do you create better behavior and action questions to understand the public's willingness and likelihood to take action? Before we cover that, it's important to note here that surveys about potential actions should be used directionally as a proxy for potential outcomes. Quantitative surveys coupled with in-market tests and optimizations will provide a clear understanding of what’s possible.

For question development, consider the following:

Never ask actions for social issues without asking about other life actions.

When creating a battery of questions about taking an action, we like to add in regular daily/weekly/monthly lifecycle and lifestyle actions to see how the social issue action is different from any other actions—such as attending faith services, managing family and/or career obligations. It’s crucial to know how important it is to an individual that they take action for the social issue given everything else going on in their life.?

Master forced-choice questions.

One of the best question types we like to use is forced-choice, presenting the individual with options given they would want to take action. We do not like to provide a long battery but rather two options to consider, and then build additional questions from there. This looks like:

If you wanted to take action for the social issue you care about, what would you do?

• Post on social media about the issue
• Sign a petition
• Neither
• Both

If the individual selected sign a petition:

Would you sign a petition and attend a demonstration/march/rally?

• Yes, I would also attend a demonstration/march/rally.
• No, I would just sign a petition.

Would you sign a petition and volunteer for at least an hour of your time for the organization?

• Yes, I would also volunteer for at least an hour of my time.
• No, I would just sign a petition.

This looping question protocol allows us to progress through potential actions and engagement journeys to see what's plausible.?

Action batteries should reflect real possibilities with gateway actions.

When developing batteries for actions, we have developed both long and short ones, and have learned a lot through each. It’s ideal to create batteries that reflect the real possibilities of the target audience—likely those who are unaware, have shown little to no interest, yet are seeking to learn more about the issue and the organization. Keeping this in mind, it's important to create a battery that has three to five options for consideration and call to actions that could be used in campaign messaging for awareness and education purposes.?

Think of this as gateway action possibilities: small actions that build deeper interest in the future. Such as:

• Get your household energy plan today.
• Take the diabetes “signs and symptoms” checker.
• View a conversation starter.

Each of these can be gateways to deeper action—signing up for new household electric appliances, visiting a doctor about diabetes and talking with a friend about mental health.?

Understanding one’s willingness to take an action requires the right framing within the context of everyday life and also offering gateway actions for future potential and deeper engagement. Keep in mind, you must try to avoid social desirability and get to the actual root of interest. Only then can you test in the market how best to take that action and make it even stronger.