Question

The survey questions at right were used to determine what people usually eat for breakfast. For each question, tell whether you think it will get an honest response from people without leading them in some way. How might you rewrite the biased questions?1. Do you like eating cereal for breakfast?2. Fruits are good for you. Do you include fruit for breakfast?3. What do you usually have for breakfast?(Choose all that apply)(A) eggs(B) Cereal (C) Yogurt (D) Rice (E) Other

Answer 1

Explanation

We are given the following questions:

0. Do you like eating cereal for breakfast?

,

1. Fruits are good for you. Do you include fruit for breakfast?

,

2. What do you usually have for breakfast?

(Choose all that apply)

• (A) eggs

,

• (B) Cereal

,

• (C) Yogurt

,

• (D) Rice

,

• (E) Other

We are required to determine whether or not we will get an honest response from people without leading them in some way.

We know that we cannot receive honest feedback from a survey if the questions asked are leading questions.

You can usually identify leading questions by looking for subjective adjectives, or context-laden words that frame the question in a positive or negative light.

For Question 1: Do you like eating cereal for breakfast?

This question is a leading question.

We can re-write this question as: "Would you take cereal as breakfast?"

For Question 2: Fruits are good for you. Do you include fruit for breakfast?

This question is also a leading question. The first statement shouldn't be included.

We can re-write this question as: "Do you include fruit for breakfast?"

For Question 3:

This is not a leading question.