Asking About Race and Ethnicity

Asking About Race and Ethnicity

The U.S. Census Bureau has been slowly releasing data from the 2020 Census and as a result we’ve made a couple of updates to our work. First, and most easily, we’ve updated the target proportions that we weight survey data to. Second, and a bit more involved, we’ve...
When and How to Use Bipolar Scales

When and How to Use Bipolar Scales

Bipolar scales such as Completely dissatisfied to Completely satisfied tend to be overused and misused in survey research today and can often be replaced with unipolar scales such as Not at all satisfied to Completely satisfied. And even when bipolar scales are more...
The Case for 5-Point Unipolar Scales

The Case for 5-Point Unipolar Scales

As teams assemble questionnaires for us to review, these draft survey instruments often end up with a mishmash of scales, with different questions having scales with three, four, five, seven, eleven, or more items, as everyone incorporates their favorite scale. One of...
Rating Scales to use when Writing Surveys

Rating Scales to use when Writing Surveys

An easy way to follow the best practice of using 5-point fully-labeled unipolar scales when writing surveys is to use common rating scales like the following. Common Unipolar Scales Frequency: Never, Rarely, Sometimes, Often, Always Importance: Unimportant,...