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

ASKING QUESTIONS ABOUT ATTITUDES AND BEHAVIORS 141
“yes” response to the general question (approve of hitting an adult
stranger). In fact, 84 percent of those who disapproved of hitting an
adult stranger in any situation they could imagine went on to indicate
approval in one or more of the five situations presented. The
“disapprovers in general” averaged about 1.82 approvals for hitting
when specific situations were described. Smith (1981) suggests that
many respondents are not interpreting the general question literally
as asked. Instead they are responding to the absolute phrase “Are
there any situations you can imagine” as if it meant “In general.”
If the attitude object is complex and you start off with a question
to which respondents can answer “yes” or “no,” it is best to
consider following up with the respondents who answer “no” by
asking additional questions that might reveal aspects of the attitude
not revealed by the initial response.
Using Questions that Include a Middle Point
We discussed earlier how dichotomous responses can be expanded
by using modifiers (such as “very,” “somewhat,” “a little”) to also
provide a measure of intensity. A question of considerable concern
to opinion researchers is whether one should include a middle alternative
in unipolar questions. That is, should a 4-point scale be used
or a 5-point scale. Including a middle alternative would offer an
indifference point between being for or against a particular view.
The common practice in survey research has often been to omit
middle categories explicitly and try to “push” respondents toward
one end or the other of a dimension. The reasoning behind this
practice is that very few people are genuinely indifferent or in the
middle. Most who think of themselves as being in the middle are in
fact leaning a little bit toward one or the other end of a continuum
of wholehearted support to wholehearted opposition. It is clear from
empirical work that an explicit middle alternative will often be
taken by respondents in a forced-choice situation if it is offered explicitly.
This suggests that removing the category might be artificially
forcing a person to take a leaning they do not have.