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

ASKING QUESTIONS THAT MEASURE KNOWLEDGE 185
widely recognized by those who had graduated from college than by
those who did not. We might also see if there are age-related effects.
(It’s almost certain there would be age-related differences in knowledge
for the World War II questions noted in Figure 6.2.)
In general, such statistics show there can sometimes be a strong
causal link between education and knowledge. When you want to
clearly distinguish knowledge from education, it is important to get
accurate measures of both, so that the effects of education on
knowledge can be controlled for in subsequent data analysis.
Name Recognition and Knowledge of Notable People
Name recognition is critical for political candidates during election
campaigns. Also, as with public issues, opinion surveys that deal
with attitudes toward public figures must first determine level of
awareness. Figure 6.5 gives three examples of Gallup questions asking
respondents about their knowledge of persons. The questions
are in increasing order of difficulty. The first merely asks whether
the respondent has heard anything about each of a number of different
people. In this format, respondents tend to overstate their
knowledge of these persons, either because of name confusion or
because of social desirability effects.
One way to reduce this overstatement is shown in the second
question. The respondent is asked, “Will you tell me who each one
is or what he does?” This requires more information than the first
Figure 6.5. Questions Concerning Name Recognition.
1. Would you please look over this list and tell me which of these persons,
if any, you have heard something about? (List follows)
2. Will you tell me who each one is or what he does? (List follows)
3. Here are some photographs of important people. Will you please look
at the photographs and tell me their names?
Source: Gallup, 1999.