SURVEY RESEARCH“Context includes more than just the influence of
one question on another. It includes the effects of
the interviewer, the interview setting, and indeed the
historical setting.... At present, we do not have a
good grasp of how questionnaire context effects
relate to response effects on surveys” (Schuman,
1992:18). The context has a more significant impact
in mail versus phone surveys because a respondent
can see all of the questions in the former.^42
You can do two things regarding context
effects. Use a funnel sequenceof questions; that is,
ask general questions before specific ones (e.g.,
about health in general before specific diseases).
Alternatively, you can divide respondents in half
and give one half questions in one order and the
other half questions in an alternative order and then
examine the results to see whether question order
mattered. If you discover question order effects,
which order tells you what the respondents really
think? The answer is that you cannot know for sure.
For example, a few years ago, my students
conducted a telephone survey on two topics:
concern about crime and attitudes toward a new
antidrunk-driving law. A random half of the respon-
dents heard questions about the drunk-driving law
first; the other half heard about crime first. I exam-
ined the results to see whether there was any
context effect—a difference resulting from topic
order. I found that respondents asked about the
antidrunk-driving law first expressed less fear
about crime than did those who were asked
about crime first. Likewise, respondents were more
supportive of the antidrunk-driving law than were
those who first heard about crime. The first topic
created a context within which respondents
answered questions on the second topic. After we
asked respondents about crime in general and theyPERCENTAGE SAYING YES
Yes to Question 1 Yes to Question 2
Heard First (Communist Reporter) (American Reporter)
Question 1 54% 75%
Question 2 64 82
EXPANSION BOX 7
Question Order EffectsQUESTION 1
“Do you think that the United States should let Communist newspaper reporters from
other countries come in here and send back to their papers the news as they see it?”
QUESTION 2
“Do you think a Communist country like Russia should let U.S. newspaper reporters come
in and send back to America the news as they see it?”
The context created by answering the first question affects the answer to the second
question.
Source:Adapted from Schuman and Presser (1981). Questions and Answers in Attitude Surveys: Experi-
ments in Question Form, Wording, and Context, p. 29. New York: Academic Press. With permission from
Elsevier.
Context effect A result in survey research when
an overall tone, setting, or set of topics heard by
respondents affect how they interpret the meaning of
subsequent questions.
Funnel sequence Organization of survey research
questions in a questionnaire from general to specific
questions.