Asking Questions - The Definitive Guide To Questionnaire Design ...

140 ASKING QUESTIONS
Figure 4.4. Example of Use of Filters.
1. As you may know, the U.N. Security Council has authorized the use of
force against Iraq if it doesn't withdraw from Kuwait by Jan. 15. If Iraq
does not withdraw from Kuwait, should the United States go to war against
Iraq to force it out of Kuwait at some point after Jan. 15 or not?
Yes (Ask A.)
No
Don’t know
A. (If Yes) How long after Jan. 15 should the U.S. wait for Iraq to withdraw
from Kuwait before going to war?
Go to war immediately
Wait up to 3 months
Wait longer than 3 months
Never go to war
Source: Gallup Organization, 2002.
question. On the basis of the first question, it appeared that a
majority of the public supported a war beginning in January. If one
considers the answers to the subsequent question posed to those who
said “no” to the first question, you would conclude that a much
larger majority actually supported a war within three months of the
interview.
Not using follow-up questions when respondents answer “no”
to a question can also cause a problem. For example, in the 1973
and 1975 General Social Surveys (GSS), respondents were first
asked, “Are there any situations that you can imagine in which you
would approve of a man punching an adult male stranger?” Many
respondents answered “no” to this question. Fortunately, respondents
were then asked a series of questions about specific conditions
under which they might approve of such an action, such as “The
stranger had hit the man’s child after the child accidentally damaged
the stranger’s car” or “The stranger was beating up a woman
and the man saw it.” Respondents were asked about the qualified
situations regardless of whether they had answered “yes” or “no” to
the general questions. This was done even though the qualifications
should have only been logical subsets or specific conditions of a