3.Questionnaire
3.2 Overcoming Inability to Answer
Overcoming Inability to Answer
Is the Respondent Informed?
Can the Respondent Remember?
Can the Respondent Articulate?
Overcoming Inability to Answer
Is the Respondent Informed?
Respondents will often answer questions even though they are not informed
- Example:
Please indicate how strongly you agree or disagree with the following statement:
“The National Bureau of Consumer Complaints provides an effective means for consumers who have purchased a defective product to obtain relief”
51.9% of the lawyers and 75% of the public expressed their opinion, although there is no such entity as the NBCC - Use Filter Questions:
e.g. ask about familiarity and/or frequency of patronage in a study of 10 department stores - Use “don’t know” Option
Overcoming Inability to Answer
Can the Respondent Remember?
The inability to remember leads to errors of omission, telescoping, and creation
Example:
How many liters of soft drinks did you consume during the last four weeks?
Ask instead:
How often do you consume soft drinks in a typical week?
- ☐ Less than once a week
- ☐ 1 to 3 times per week
- ☐ 4 or 6 times per week
- ☐ 7 or more times per week
Use aided recall approach (where appropriate)
“What brands of soft drinks do you remember being advertised last night on TV?”
vs
“Which of these brands were advertised last night on TV?”
Overcoming Inability to Answer
Can the Respondent Articulate?
If unable to articulate their responses, respondents are likely to ignore the question and quit the survey
- Example:
If asked to describe the atmosphere of the department store they would prefer to patronage, most respondents may be unable to phrase their answers. - Provide aids, e.g., pictures, maps, descriptions
If the respondents are given alternative descriptions of store atmosphere, they will be able to indicate the one they like the best.
