Without context, respondents create their own mental frameworks, introducing inconsistency. Clear context improves answer consistency and quality (Schwarz, 1999; Tourangeau et al., 2000).
“How many hours do you spend online?”
Problems:
“To help us understand media habits: In a typical day, approximately how many hours do you spend actively browsing websites or using social media for personal (non-work) purposes?”
Benefits:
Briefly explain how the information will be used to establish relevance.
Clarify potentially confusing concepts with simple definitions or examples.
Explicitly state the period respondents should consider (today, typical week, past month).
Add brief transition text between topic changes to maintain cognitive flow.
Back to Principles Clarity Trumps All Principle: Questions must be simple, direct, and jargon-free to ensure accurate responses. Clear questions minimize confusion and respondent burden,
Back to Principles Pretesting Ensures Quality Principle: Testing surveys with sample respondents identifies problems that creators miss and improves data quality. Even experienced researchers develop
Back to Principles Sensitivity Comes Last Principle: Place personal, sensitive, or potentially uncomfortable questions toward the end of surveys to avoid early abandonment. Research shows
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