{"id":12196,"date":"2015-04-22T12:06:51","date_gmt":"2015-04-22T19:06:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/?p=12196"},"modified":"2023-08-21T06:25:17","modified_gmt":"2023-08-21T06:25:17","slug":"everyone-chooses-the-answer-to-the-left-scale-order","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/everyone-chooses-the-answer-to-the-left-scale-order\/","title":{"rendered":"Everyone chooses the answer to the left: scale order"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Photo by Winnifredxoxo. Used under Creative Commons License<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Yesterday’s discussion of Likert scale and Likert<\/a>-style scales included the assertion that presenting the scales with the positive items to the left will result in a research bias<\/a> towards the positive side of the scale, as opposed to presenting the same scale with the negative items to the left. Let’s dive into some issues with the way scales are presented to respondents, and the research-approved recommendation for how to present a scale in your online survey.
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Left-side bias<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When using Likert-type scales<\/a> for measuring respondent attitudes and opinions, the way in which you present the scale matters. A number of studies have been conducted to measure the difference between responses gathered when the scale was presented with positive options to the left versus negative options to the left. One by Jason Chan from University of Texas at Austin (pdf download) showed that, while respondents were more likely in general to choose the left-most options in a scale, when the most positive options were listed first on the left, the response bias was higher than when listing the same options with the negative options on the left. A similar study was repeated and had the same results (pdf download): whatever is listed to the left is chosen more, but it’s more pronounced when the positive options are listed to the left.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here’s a caveat, though – the bias is more pronounced when you’re dealing with 100 or more responses. The bias is not measured as strongly for fewer than 100 responses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\t

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