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

206 ASKING QUESTIONS
respondents will guess, and their guess will be based on their attitudes
toward welfare programs in general.
Controlling for Overstatement of Knowledge
Respondents presented with a list of persons or organizations and
asked whether they have heard or read something about them may
find the question mildly threatening—especially if the list is long
and includes many unfamiliar names (as in Figure 6.5, Question 1).
Indicating that you have not heard anything about all or most of
the names on a list suggests you are out of touch with current affairs.
Since the answers to this question cannot be checked, there is a
tendency for respondents to overclaim having heard about people
and organizations. The easiest way to control for this is to ask an
additional question about who the person is or what he or she does
(as in Question 2, Figure 6.5) or what the company makes (as in
Question 1, Figure 6.7).
In some cases, such additional qualifying questions may not be
appropriate. For instance, in a study of knowledge about possible
candidates for political office (such as president of the United
States), the current position of a person may not be relevant, and
the fact that he is a possible nominee may be evident from the context
of the question. A solution in this case is to add the name of a
“sleeper” or a person whom no one would be expected to know. For
example, in a study conducted by NORC some years ago, the name
of a graduate student was added to a list of civil rights leaders.
About 15 percent of all respondents reported that they had heard
of this graduate student. This suggested that several other actual
civil rights leaders whose names were supposedly recognized by
about 15 percent of the population might, in reality, be virtually
unknown.
The same procedure can be used with companies and brands in
marketing research to determine brand name awareness. Of course,
when sleepers are used, it is important to avoid names of known