Gaining important insights through survey research is an efficient decision-making strategy. It’s a sensible way to make good calls when a difficult decision is required, one requiring relevant feedback from stakeholders such as customers or employees.
However, there are many ways to go astray when surveying respondents, including using biased survey questions that can completely ruin research and lead to incorrect conclusions.
Creating a survey is a task that should be taken seriously. Data accuracy is always essential to good research. Luckily, if you want to become a seasoned survey writer who successfully avoids different types of survey bias, you’re in the right place.
Are you ready to collect reliable feedback from respondents?
Understanding biased survey questions: What is a biased survey?
A biased survey includes bad survey questions or phrasing that confuse respondents and leads to inaccurate data since respondents are directed to answer in a certain way. This can be done purposefully or inadvertently by survey authors.
There are many potential disadvantages to ignoring biased questions in your survey, the main being they waste time and resources because the results end up being useless and inaccurate.
Creating a well-designed, unbiased questionnaire requires making sure questions are written clearly and straightforwardly. They also need to align with your respondents’ knowledge and motivations.
The importance of avoiding biased survey questions
Surveys are a popular method of gathering feedback. However, they can suffer from response biases. Biased survey questions can introduce misleading survey results and distort the picture of what your examinees really think.
When it comes to questionnaire research, everything is about objective data. Avoiding response bias is the key to getting accurate viewpoints and opinions, whether for science or business purposes.
An important part of a customer’s experience is how the business communicates and questionnaires are no exception. How questions are answered will depend heavily on respondents’ previous customer service experiences.
Biased survey questions—such as loaded questions or leading questions—can seriously jeopardize your customer experience survey results. One small word change can completely alter the response to a question, leading to inaccurate data. The same goes for any other type of survey research.
There is no secret formula for a perfect survey design; however, there are a couple of tips and tricks you can use to recognize bad ones and avoid them in the future.
Dealing with the biased survey: How to recognize biased survey questions?
Unfortunately, there is no exact method to catch all the potential flaws when formulating survey questions (at least not without the help of a seasoned researcher).
However, there are some indicators you should look for when wording questions. Biased survey questions usually have two types of issues: respondents do not interpret the wording consistently or the wording influences respondents’ answers. Always read questions carefully—more than once—before sending them out as part of a survey.
Knowing the most common types of biased survey questions is a good start. Learn how to recognize them so you can avoid them in the first place.
1. Leading questions bias: What are leading questions and how to avoid them?
Leading questions include phrasing that contains the statement the researcher wants to pull from respondents, which pushes the person taking the survey to answer in a certain way.
The key element to be on the lookout for is leading questions often contain an assumption and tend to be overly definitive about acquiring desired information.
Examples:
- Do you support the new tax proposal? (This question is biased because it implies that the respondent should support the proposal.)
- More employees working remotely reported being happy compared to office-based workers. What do you have to say about it? (This question is biased because it implies that the respondent should prefer working remotely.)
To avoid leading questions, it is important to phrase your questions neutrally and balance the options for answering. A better way to word these questions might be:
- What are your thoughts on the new tax proposal?
- Would you prefer working remotely or in an office?
2. Assumptive questions
Assumptive questions contain an assumption about a respondent’s habits, preferences, values, etc. When answering these types of questions, respondents usually end up being pushed to agree or disagree with the statement included in the question.
Also known as loaded survey questions, assumptive questions not only prevent you from getting honest feedback but also lead to a higher dropout rate (the number of respondents that choose not to finish).
Examples:
- What is your favorite cocktail bar? (This question is biased because it implies that the respondent drinks.)
- How much did you enjoy attending our conference? (This question is biased because it implies that the respondent enjoyed attending.)
To avoid assumptive questions, do not make baseless assumptions about your respondents. A better way to word these questions might be:
- Do you have a favorite cocktail bar, and which one is it if you do?
- Did you enjoy attending our conference?
3. Double-barreled questions: What is a double-barreled question in research?
Double-barreled questions, also known as double-direct questions, are two questions (issues or topics) asked at once. The unenviable task for recipients is to answer the question with only one answer.
By splitting up one double-barreled question, you make your questionnaire less complex and this will help respondents not get confused. The essential tip for creating an excellent survey—one that will produce a great experience for respondents—is to not overcomplicate your research design.
Example:
- Do you think our products are innovative and practical? (This question is biased because the attributes “innovative” and “practical” are not synonymous.)
To avoid double-barreled questions, ensure that only one piece of information is sought per question A better way to get this information is to ask two separate questions:
- Do you think our products are innovative?
- Do you think our products are practical?
4. Ambiguous questions
Ambiguous questions can be interpreted in more than one way. They can confuse respondents and easily lead to inaccurate research results.
Also known as unclear or vague questions, ambiguous questions don’t have a specific query. This means respondents can answer the question correctly even when providing information about entirely different topics.
Examples:
- How are you doing today? (This question is biased because respondents could understand the question as asking them how they are feeling or asking about their health.)
- Have you bought anything in the past six months? (This question is biased because it is unclear and doesn’t reveal what the purchase was, where it was made, etc.)
To avoid ambiguous questions, you must keep the overall research goal constantly in your mind. Write brief questions that gather relevant information for your specific research topic.
5. Dichotomous-biased questions: Why are absolute questions not the best option for some surveys?
Dichotomous questions contain only two possible response variables. Often these are “Yes/No” or “True/False” questions. While they can be helpful in some research scenarios, they often tend to result in inaccurate data.
Example:
- Do you know how to play the piano? (This question is biased because it doesn’t allow the respondents to describe their piano-playing skills. Instead, they end up picking an answer that may not resonate with them completely.)
To avoid the problem of dichotomous questions, try using multiple-choice questions or a Likert scale instead. A better way to word these questions might be:
- How well do you know how to play the piano?
- Not very well
- Average
- Very well
6. Survey questions that include jargon language
Jargon is a word or expression used by a group that is difficult for people outside of that group to understand (such as legal or sports terminology). When used in a questionnaire, respondents may not understand what is being asked.
If the jargon is specific to a particular field, respondents may also become frustrated, leading to a higher dropout rate. Finally, if respondents misinterpret the questions, this can lead to inaccurate responses.
Example:
- Are you satisfied with our website’s UX? (This question is biased because the question is probably inadequately worded for a wider population or your target audience.)
Here’s a quick tip. To ensure you’re not using jargon, find a few friends or colleagues with different demographic profiles and see if they understand the questions.
How to avoid biased survey questions and, ultimately, a biased survey?
When designing survey questions, word choice may profoundly change the research results. To gather reliable data, questions need to be clear and concise.
If you don’t have experience in this field, then the best way to produce well-written surveys is to “steal” our best practices and avoid biased survey questions. You can browse through our survey examples or SurveyPlanet’s helpful blog posts. Our idea is to make survey research “easy peasy,” a task that anyone can carry out in a professional manner. Start your survey-making journey by signing up today!
Photo by Hasan Almasi on Unsplash