Think like a Respondent to Improve Survey Data Quality*
01 Oct 2015
We’ve come a long way in the practice of survey research in terms of understanding and managing sources of error such as scale usage bias, but an accumulation of research into the unobservable cognitive processes that come into play when respondents answer survey questions shows that crafting survey questions that reliably elicit the information we think we are asking for is no easy matter. In fact, the survey question may be the weakest link in the chain of components that comprise the typical quantitative market research study.