When your answer choices prompt bias

As a researcher, I assume that people write questions so that they obtain viable data from the answers. The prompt for this survey is simple enough: "Should you identify as having a disability on a job application?" It has an established subject, object, and is structured properly.

But the answers indicate a potential bias in the author. Rather than "yes," or "no," or "other" as the options, the affirmative "yes" is instead converted to "absolutely." Before moving on to the second choice, if you select the first one, you're stating it's an absolute. There is no room for "sometimes" in this "yes."

Moving onto the "no" option, you must only select "no" if you believe it "hurts your chances." So if you believe you shouldn't disclose a disability because you don't find it relevant, you can't just select "no" and move on, because you must believe you are saying no solely because it hurts your chances of gaining employment.

The third option of "it depends" really renders the yes/no options irrelevant as the author must then sort through all of the comments to determine if people are arguing for or against disclosure. The reason that this is important is that this is a yes or no question. In the modern era, applicant tracking systems for most companies ask you if you identify as being disabled: yes/no. They don't give you an option for "other, explain below."

Simply rewriting this question could yield significant, reliable data. Here's one option:

What impact, if any, do you believe that disclosing having a disability has on your job application?

• Positive impact - it helps me get hired
• Negative impact - it hurts my chances of getting hired
• No impact - it doesn't change my chances of getting hired in either direction

Analyzing the data, you have three simple yet distinct options. Your participants are unlikely to misunderstand the meaning of each answer choice, and there is no murky area between yes and no. It aligns with how applications work and takes the same or less time to answer than the original.

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