The Influence of Graphical and Symbolic Language Manipulations on Responses to Self-Administered Questions |
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| Authors: | Christian, Leah Melani Dillman, Don A. |
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| Affiliation: | Leah Melani Christian is 1a graduate research assistant in the Social and Economic Sciences Research Center (SESRC) and the Department of Sociology at Washington State University (WSU), and Don A. Dillman is the Thomas S. Foley Distinguished Professor of Government and Public Policy and Regents’ Professor in the WSU Departments of Sociology and Community and Rural Sociology, and Deputy Director of the SESRC, Pullman, Washington 99164-4014. The authors wish to acknowledge the financial support provided for this research by the WSU Agricultural Research Center under Western Region Project W-183, the SESRC, the National Science Foundation Division of Science Resource Statistics, the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Agricultural Statistics Service, and the Gallup Organization. Appreciation is also expressed to Thom Allen, who served as study director for collection of the data analyzed here. |
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| Abstract: | This article reports results from 14 experimental comparisonsdesigned to test 7 hypotheses about the effects of two typesof nonverbal languages (symbols and graphics) on responses toself-administered questionnaires. The experiments were includedin a survey of 1,042 university students. Significant differenceswere observed for most comparisons, providing support for allseven hypotheses. These results support the view that respondentsanswers to questions in self-administered surveys are influencedby more than words. Thus, the visual presentation of questionsmust be taken into consideration when designing such surveysand, especially, when comparing results across surveys in whichthe visual presentation of questions is varied. |
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