Surveys are a powerful tool to collect feedback, opinions, and insights from your customers, employees, or target audience. However, not all surveys are created equal. The quality and reliability of your survey results depend largely on how you design and phrase your survey questions.
One of the most common pitfalls in survey design is using leading questions. In this post, we’ll explain what leading questions are, how they differ from non-leading and loaded questions, what types of leading questions exist, and how to avoid them in your surveys.
A leading question is a question that prompts or suggests a desired answer, either explicitly or implicitly. A leading question can do this by:
- Framing the question in a way that limits the possible responses or excludes alternatives
- Providing information or opinions that the respondent may not have or share
- Using double negatives or confusing syntax that confuses the respondent
- Using words or phrases that imply a certain attitude or emotion
For example, a leading question may ask:
- Would you rather buy from us or from our competitors, known for their poor customer service?
- How often do you use our app, which has many useful features?
- Don’t you agree that our product is the best in the market?
- How much did you enjoy a fantastic event?
These questions aren’t neutral or objective. They imply that the event was fantastic, that the product is the best, that the app has many useful features, and that competitors have poor customer service. These questions may influence the respondents to answer more positively or negatively than they feel or to choose an option they may not prefer.
Leading vs. Non-Leading Questions
A non-leading question is a question that doesn’t suggest or imply a desired answer but rather allows the respondent to answer freely and honestly.
Non-leading questions are usually open-ended, meaning they don’t provide a fixed set of options or a yes/no answer.
A non-leading question can also be closed-ended, meaning that it provides a list of options or a yes/no answer, as long as the options are balanced and comprehensive.
For example, a non-leading question may ask:
- Which company do you prefer to buy from and why?
- What are your thoughts on our product?
- How often do you use our app?
- How did you find our event?
These questions are more neutral and objective than the leading questions. They don’t provide any information or opinions that the respondent may not have or share, nor do they use words or phrases that imply a certain attitude or emotion.
Loaded Questions vs. Leading Questions
When talking about leading questions, it’s inevitable to also talk about loaded questions. A loaded question is a trick question containing a controversial or unjustified assumption or accusation about the interviewee.
Loaded questions are often confused with leading questions because they both add a level of intrinsic bias toward the answer you want as an interviewer.
However, loaded questions are different in that they serve the interviewer’s purpose, regardless of the answer. Meanwhile, leading questions only increase the probability that the respondent will answer in a specific desired way.
For example, a loaded question may basically ask:
- Why are you so lazy and irresponsible?
- Have you stopped evading taxes?
These questions are loaded because they assume something negative about the respondent (that they are evading taxes or that they’re lazy and irresponsible). Also, notice that no matter what the respondent answers, it’ll confirm the assumption.
Different Types of Leading Questions
Different types of questions are considered leading, depending on how they influence or persuade the respondent to answer in a certain way. Here are some of the most common types of leading questions and examples of each.
Leading Questions Based on Assumptions
Leading questions that stem from assumptions are based on ideas that the survey author has in advance or wishes to validate.
These questions may assume that the respondent has a certain level of knowledge, interest, satisfaction, or preference that they may not have. These questions may also assume that the respondent agrees or disagrees with a certain statement or opinion that they may not share.
Examples of Leading Questions Based on Assumptions
- How satisfied are you with our product? (This question assumes that the respondent is satisfied with the product).
- Which of our product features did you find most useful? (It assumes that the respondent found any of the product features useful).
- How bad do you think the President’s new policies are? (This question assumes that the respondent thinks the President’s new policies are bad).
Questions Based on Interconnected Statements
These are questions that combine two closely related or connected statements, often with a causal or logical connection. The first statement is commonly used to provide a biased context, while the second statement is the question that hopes the respondent will agree with the first statement.
Examples of Leading Questions Based on Interconnected Statements
- Many employees like coming to the office versus working from home. What do you think about this? (If the respondent is an employee, the first statement implies that they should also like coming to the office versus working from home).
- Our product is easy and simple to use, isn’t it? (The first statement implies that the respondent should also think the product is easy and simple to use).
- Since you are a loyal customer, would you like to join our referral program? (The first statement implies that the respondent should also want to join the referral program since they are loyal).
Direct Implication-Based Leading Questions
These are questions that imply a certain outcome or consequence of the respondent’s answer, either positive or negative. Common words like “if”, “then”, “would”, or “could” create a hypothetical scenario that may influence the respondent’s choice.
They may also use words like “should”, “must”, or “need” to create a sense of obligation or pressure on the respondent.
Examples of Leading Questions Based on Direct Implications
- If you care about the environment, would you buy our eco-friendly products? (The first statement makes the respondents ask themselves, “Do I care about the environment?” If they do, they’ll be more likely to answer yes).
- How would you feel if we discontinued our free trial offer? (Implies that the respondent should feel bad or disappointed if the offer is discontinued)
- Do you think you need more training to improve your performance? (Implies that the respondent’s performance isn’t good enough and that they need more training)
Coercive Questions
These are questions that use coercive or manipulative language to force or persuade the respondent to answer in a certain way. These questions may use words like “don’t you”, “can’t you”, “wouldn’t you”, or “aren’t you” to create a negative or positive expectation on the respondent.
Examples of Leading Questions Based on Coercion
- You’re a satisfied customer, aren’t you? (Forces the respondent to agree that they are a satisfied customer, even if this is a false answer).
- Can’t you see that our service is better than our competitors? (The entire question is written in coercive language, persuading the respondent to see that the service is better than the competitors).
- Please rate our product five stars. Thank you. (Manipulates the respondent to rate the product five stars instead of asking them to rate it according to the real opinion).
Compound Questions
Finally, we can find compound or double-barreled questions. These questions ask two or more questions in one but only allow one answer.
These questions may need to be clarified and can mislead the respondent, as they may not be able to answer all the questions or may have different answers for each question.
Double-barreled questions may also use words like “and”, “or”, or “both” to combine the questions.
Examples of Compound-Leading Questions
- Do you like our product and service? (Asks two questions in one but only allows one answer. The respondent may like one but not the other, forcing one inaccurate response no matter what the answer).
- How satisfied are you with the quality and price of our product? (Same as above. It asks two questions but only allows one answer).
The Role of Leading Questions in Surveys
Surveys provide valuable information in different contexts, and they may or may not contain leading questions. For example, leading questions can appear in surveys, such as:
- Employee or customer feedback surveys
- Customer satisfaction surveys
- Market research surveys
- Evaluation surveys
- Academic surveys
Depending on the inherent intent of the survey’s designer, using different leading question types may be intentional or not.
Intentional Leading Questions
Leading questions may be used intentionally in some contexts. For example, in sales and marketing, leading questions can create a sense of urgency and social desirability bias, leading the customer to make a purchase.
In this context, leading questions may provide a simple “yes” or “no” answer to confirm a desired preconceived notion about a product without the need for the respondent to give further details.
An example of a survey with well-formulated leading questions is the Form Health quiz, which allows interested parties to discover whether they would benefit from a Wegovy or Zepbound online prescription, and if the program is right for them.
To continue leading the respondent, there are different answer options where they can select the one that best suits their interests.
Why You Should Avoid Leading Questions
In the context of marketing or academic research, you want answers to be as unbiased as possible. Why? Unbiased answers avoid false feedback that leads to inaccurate results. Inaccurate results then lead to bad decision-making.
In businesses such as those in the travel industry, surveys are valuable for tailoring experiences to customer preferences. For example, a company specializing in camper rentals might use surveys to ask probing questions that delve into a customer’s ideal vacation.
If you use leading questions in this type of survey, survey respondents won’t necessarily reveal their true preferences. These skewed results could harm future marketing efforts.
5 Tips to Avoid Leading Questions in Marketing Research
Leading questions can ruin your marketing research efforts, as they can introduce bias, skew data, and reduce the validity of your results. To avoid leading questions in your marketing research surveys, use the following tips:
- Tip #1: Define your research objectives and questions clearly and precisely, and ensure they align with your target audience and market.
- Tip #2: Use simple, clear, and concise language that doesn’t imply any opinions or assumptions.
- Tip #3: Ask open-ended questions so respondents can express their own views and experiences, avoiding interconnected statements or double-barreled questions. Take advantage of online tools such as an AI survey generator to build dynamic surveys that ask for further feedback based on previous answers.
- Tip #4: Provide a balanced range of answer options that cover both positive and negative outcomes, such as scale-based questions. Include an “other” option or a “don’t know” option for questions that may not apply to all respondents.
- Tip #5: Test your questions on a sample group of respondents and ask for feedback on whether they felt any bias or pressure to answer in a certain way.
Ensure Your Surveys Align With Your Goals
A leading question forces respondents to answer in a particular desired way. This type of question can lead to skewed data and biased results.
They’re used both intentionally and unintentionally in different types of surveys and may therefore influence the validity and usefulness of the survey’s results.
Surveys require spending resources like time, money, and staff hours. They also condition the ROI and efficacy of marketing and other decisions based on results. Therefore, you must take special care when designing the questions that go into a survey.
A simple question written in neutral language with simple response options will go a long way in ensuring accurate responses from prospective clients. Once you have the survey results, the data collected is invaluable.
Keeping this data secure and recoverable is where services like AWS backup come in. Solutions like these can safeguard sensitive data from potential threats, ensuring that insights gained from surveys aren’t lost but preserved for ongoing analysis and action.
By using the examples presented above to help identify leading questions and the five tips provided afterward on avoiding them, you’ll be on your way to writing better, more effective surveys.
