If you do survey research, you likely use Likert scales. Likert scales are often a great way to capture attitudes, self-reported behaviors and more. Unfortunately, I see a lot of questionnaires where the questions accompanying such rating scales are really wordy. For example, have you ever seen something like this? “Please indicate the degree to which you agree with each of the following statements about your recent purchase of a new Brand X snow blower?”
The problem with that example? Well, there are several, but two big ones are due to wordiness. Wordiness can create bias from unintentional framing or priming. And wordiness is problematic if many of your survey respondents are experiencing your questionnaire on a small screen.
How to mitigate the risks associated with wordiness in market research questionnaires? Know all your scale options. Likert scales are great for many cases, but so are semantic differential scales and they require fewer words. Not familiar with semantic differential scales? Tune in for some quick tips that will help your professional market research instruments shine.
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1 comment
Thanks for another great point for improving surveys. In addition to avoiding bias, reducing wordiness helps to keep respondents engaged. Long, wordy questions are more likely to ignored. Respondents who immediately go to an answer scale and anchor points without bothering to read instructions will still be able to provide useful responses on a semantic differential scale. I like the pragmatic advice that is common at Research Rockstar.