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

60 ASKING QUESTIONS
more carefully and will receive more positive responses than items
in the middle. For long lists, careful researchers use two or more different
forms and randomize the order of the items on both forms.
Another procedure, shown in Figure 1.1, requires the interviewer
to read all items to the respondent and obtain a “yes” or “no” answer
for each item. This procedure is now widely used in telephone
interviewing, where the respondent cannot be handed a card to
read. It also has the advantage of removing or reducing list order
effects, although both the interviewer and the respondent may
become bored if the list is too long.
Order effects are sensitive to the mode of administration. Because
of primacy effects, items appearing early in the list are often
over-selected when the questionnaire is administered in person
with show cards or when it is self-administered. On the other hand,
because of recency effects, items appearing at the end of the list are
over-selected, particularly when the questionnaire is administered
by telephone and the respondents can only hear the list read.
Dealing with Long Lists. Another problem with aided recall
develops from the use of long lists. Imagine respondents have been
given a list of fifty activities and asked which of these they have
done in a specified time period. If they have done none of these
activities, the question is likely to make them uncomfortable, even
if the topic is nonthreatening. They will feel that the interviewer
expects at least some “yes” answers from among a long list of activities.
Such respondents are likely to report some activities, either by
deliberately fibbing or by unconsciously misremembering the date
when a behavior occurred.
You should anticipate this problem and avoid it by using two
techniques. The first, illustrated in Figure 1.1, is to make the list so
extensive that virtually all respondents will be able to answer “yes”
to some items. The second way is to start with a screening question
such as “Did you happen to have read any magazines in the past two
weeks, or not?”—before showing the respondent a list of magazines.