Frequent Questionnaire Mistakes
By Matt Kerr IFANR Research Director
When new clients consult with IFANR about how to meet their research needs, they sometimes provide us with a questionnaire they used in a previous survey. The questionnaire has usually been written by someone in house who knows which questions they wanted to ask but failed to ask them in a logical manner.
One of the most common mistakes we see is a “double-barreled question.” A double-barreled question is one which asks two questions while providing only one set of response options. Here is an extreme example of one such question, one which has (hopefully) never appeared in a real survey.
Q: Have you brushed your teeth or bungee jumped off a tall bridge today?
A: Yes/No
If someone answers “yes,” What does that mean? Consider the choices?
1. They brushed their teeth, but did not jump off of a bridge (Most likely)
2. They jumped off a bridge, but did not brush their teeth (Less likely…and gross)
3. They jumped off a bridge and brushed their teeth. (Possible, but also not likely)
The reality is, we simply don’t know. There are, however, a couple easy ways to resolve this problem.
One way is to ask two questions, for example:
Q1: Have you brushed your teeth today?
A1: Yes/No
Q2; Have you bungee jumped off of a tall bridge today?
A2: Yes/No
Another way is to create a multiple-choice question:
Q: Please selected each of the following that you have done today.
A: Brushed my teeth/Bungee jumped off a tall bridge/None of the above
Effective and actionable research starts with clear questionnaire writing. IFANR can help your organization ask the proper questions to give you the answers you need.


