As a leading online survey software company, we are always answering questions about survey best practices. Even scaled questions, or interval question types, come with a lot of questions:
The list goes on and on. It's a good thing there are so many questions about scaled questions. Selecting the correct question type and formatting it correctly is a critical part of survey questionnaire design.
When you're designing your survey questions, steer clear of using negative numbers in scales. Research has shown that people do not like to give negative ratings when completing surveys. This means, if you use a negative scale, you're adding bias to your survey data. You're going to push people more towards the neutral point or higher on the scale. When you're creating the question, it doesn't seem like using negative numbers in your likert type question would have an impact because each point still has the same arbitrary value. However, there's a psychological effect.
Think of it this way: you're taking a customer satisfaction survey asking for customer service feedback. You were less than satisfied with the experience, but you're rating the person who helped you and know that it will reflect on them. Chances are you're not going to want to assign a negative number to them so you'll give them the lowest non-negative score (Average). It's not reflective of how you really feel, but you don't feel they did a negative job.
The scale values seem like a little thing, but they can have a big impact on your online web survey. Each step in survey building is important to think about right down to the flow of your survey questions.
Looking for more online survey best practices? Sign up for one of our 30 minute best practice webinars and start improving your web based surveys.
How many points is too many, too few?
Is a likert scale survey question appropriate?
Why are scales better than ordinal question types?
Should I label every point on a scale?
Is a likert scale survey question appropriate?
Why are scales better than ordinal question types?
Should I label every point on a scale?
The list goes on and on. It's a good thing there are so many questions about scaled questions. Selecting the correct question type and formatting it correctly is a critical part of survey questionnaire design.
When you're designing your survey questions, steer clear of using negative numbers in scales. Research has shown that people do not like to give negative ratings when completing surveys. This means, if you use a negative scale, you're adding bias to your survey data. You're going to push people more towards the neutral point or higher on the scale. When you're creating the question, it doesn't seem like using negative numbers in your likert type question would have an impact because each point still has the same arbitrary value. However, there's a psychological effect.
Think of it this way: you're taking a customer satisfaction survey asking for customer service feedback. You were less than satisfied with the experience, but you're rating the person who helped you and know that it will reflect on them. Chances are you're not going to want to assign a negative number to them so you'll give them the lowest non-negative score (Average). It's not reflective of how you really feel, but you don't feel they did a negative job.
The scale values seem like a little thing, but they can have a big impact on your online web survey. Each step in survey building is important to think about right down to the flow of your survey questions.
Looking for more online survey best practices? Sign up for one of our 30 minute best practice webinars and start improving your web based surveys.
Powered by Compendium Blogware
Comments for Survey Question Tip: Don't Use Negative Numbers In Scales