Russel-Research-Method-in-Anthropology

276 Chapter 10
9. Keep threatening questions short. Many questions require a preamble in order
to set up a time frame or otherwise make clear what you are asking an informant
to think about in answering a question. For example:
These next questions are about what your children are doing these days. You
said that you have two daughters and a son. Where is your older daughter
living? Your younger daughter? Your son?
These next questions are about your travels to sell huipiles in the last year.
Since October 2005, how many times have you been to Chichicastenango
to sell your huipiles?
Questions that are likely to intimidate respondents should have long preambles
to lessen the intimidation effect. The questions themselves, however, should
contain as few words as possible.
10. Always provide alternatives, if appropriate. Suppose people are being asked to
move off their land to make way for a new highway. The government offers to
compensate people for the land, but people are suspicious that the government
won’t evaluate fairly how much compensation landowners are entitled to. If you
take a survey and ask ‘‘Should the government offer people compensation for
their land?’’ respondents can answer yes or no for very different reasons.
Instead, let people check whether they agree or disagree with a set of alternatives,
like: ‘‘The government should offer people compensation for their land’’
and ‘‘An independent board should determine how much people get for their
land.’’
11. Avoid loaded questions. Any question that begins ‘‘Don’t you agree that . . .’’
is a loaded question. Sheatsley (1983) points out, however, that asking loaded
questions is a technique you can use to your advantage, on occasion, just as
leading or baiting informants can be used in unstructured interviewing. A
famous example comes from Kinsey’s landmark study of sexual behavior of
American men (Kinsey et al. 1948). Kinsey asked men ‘‘How old were you the
first time you masturbated?’’ This made respondents feel that the interviewer
already knew about the fact of masturbation and was only in search of additional
information.
12. Don’t use double-barreled questions. Here is one I found on a questionnaire:
‘‘When did you leave home and go to work on your own for the first time?’’
There is no reason to assume, of course, that someone had to leave home in
order to go to work, or that they necessarily went to work if they left home.
Here is another bad question:
Please indicate if you agree or disagree with the following statement:
Marijuana is no more harmful than tobacco or alcohol, so the personal use of
marijuana should be legal.
Suppose a respondent agrees (or disagrees) with the first part of the statement—the
assertion that marijuana is no more harmful than tobacco or alcohol.
He or she may agree or disagree with the second part of the statement. If
respondents answer ‘‘yes’’ or ‘‘no,’’ how do you know if they are indicating