Wed, 07 Dec 2011
The Art of asking a question.
For such a simple concept, you would be surprised how many people struggle to ask the right question. The inspiration for this blog post comes from surveys. There are several organisations out there that will bribe you with a small amount of money in return for answering surveys on a selection of topics. The amounts are small, usually in the range of £0.05 - £1.00. But the answers have far more value.
The organisations that are asking the questions are not the ones that are using the results, they are asking on behalf of someone else, be it a company, a paper, a tv show, a think tank, or a charity. The results go on to be used to influence marketing, political and research policy. But the more surveys I fill in, the more I find myself questioning the value of any of the results that they get. All of it coming from the poor wording of many of the questions.
In a recent survey I did I was presented with a question as follows:
"During the winter months (November-Febuary) How often do you have the following issues?"
With a list of items such as a frozen up car windscreen, a car that will not start, or a broken windscreen wiper blade. In all honesty I answered zero to each of these questions. Which is a technically accurate answer. But it skews the results for one shockingly simple reason. I don't have a car. Which ever organisation commissioned this is getting results that by and large are nonsensical due to the poor wording of their questions. As one friend summed up:
It turns out that most students, children, telecommuters etc do NOT have frozen windscreen issues! Who knew.
Obviously, this is a minor issue in this case, some company has got some useless research and it probably won't have any major impact on us all. But these organisations are doing research for people who do matter, such as Her Majesty's Government. I recall a few years back doing a survey where I was asked for my opinion on the privatisation of Search and Rescue services in the UK. Lo and behold a few months later the government announced plans to privatise Search and Rescue services in the UK.
All this, based on some poorly worded questions asked to a largely anonymous crowd of people. So, to all those involved in research using surveys, please, stop and look at your questions. Have you assumed something in there? Have you checked the person you are asking has a TV before asking about their viewing habits? Or checked they have a car before asking if they have issues with their windscreen? Remember a question is not always as simple as you think.
Do you know what the time is?
—Yes.
posted at: 16:57 | path: / | permanent link to this entry | 0 comments