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

142 ASKING QUESTIONS
Research shows that including a middle alternative does in fact
increase the size of that category but does not affect the ratio of
“pro” to “con” responses or the size of the “don’t know” category. As
has generally been believed, those who do not feel very strongly
about the issues are most susceptible to the effect of a middle alternative.
On the whole, the inclusion of the middle category does not
change the relationship between responses to the items and background
characteristics such as the respondent’s educational level. In
some instances, however, the wording changes affect the intercorrelation
among different opinion items that were supposed to
measure the same underlying attitude.
Although it is impossible to make any hard and fast rule, our advice
is contrary to contemporary general practice. We recommend
including a middle category unless there are persuasive reasons not
to. The addition of the middle category does not usually change the
ratio of support to opposition, and the inclusion of the middle category
will give as much information about the ratio of general favorableness
to unfavorableness as will a question that omits the middle
category. The size of the response to the middle category can give
extra information about the intensity of attitudes—information that
might be absent in a forced-choice situation. In general, we feel that
middle-of-the-road or indifferent respondents should not be forced
to express opinions.
Avoiding Double-Barreled and One-and-a-Half-Barreled
Questions
One of the first things a researcher learns in questionnaire construction
is to avoid double-barreled questions, that is, questions in
which opinions about two objects are joined together so that
respondents must answer two questions with one answer. Even a
novice survey researcher would wince at a question like “In the
coming presidential election, do you support Senator Pace and
peace, or do you support Governor Guerra and war?”