Apr
14

Matrix Questions

by andyp

Matrix questions can make a survey much quicker for respondents.  Combining several questions into one streamlines the answering process, so that they respondents can quickly read through and answer  several questions very quickly.

However, there is also a risk that respondents will cruise through all of the questions  answering very satisfied to  all of the questions without giving any thought to what is being asked. This is called Straight lining.  Straight lining also makes it hard to tell if someone genuinely felt “very satisfied for each question asked or if they just answer the same thing to get through the survey quicker.

You can avoid  straight lining by  asking the questions from a positive and a negative perspective.  For example with an agree disagree scale instead of asking  "provided good entertainment" you might rephrase it to say "did not provide good entertainment." Changing back and forth from positive to negative makes it so that they respondent needs to think more  about what is being asked and can't just cruise through the matrix question.

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