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Subject:
From:
Elizabeth Buie <[log in to unmask]>
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Date:
Tue, 29 Feb 2000 13:54:08 -0500
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Caroline Verdier-Cellier wrote:

Negative statement:  "It's not worth a look."
Question to users:  "Do you agree with this statement?"

> Question: what is the effect of a negative question on people?Is it worth
> using it to check the participants are thinking or instead do they get more
> confused and can't think clearly??

There are pluses and minuses, but many people consider it advisable
to mix negative and positive statements.  However, you have to make
the responses more specific than "yes" and "no."  Normally, these
responses are "agree" and "disagree" (and variants of those, such
as "strongly agree" and "strongly disagree").

Also, the person's native language can make things more confusing.
I often find that my husband (who is Italian) will say "yes" to agree
with a negative statement I make in English, when in English one would
be much more likely to say "no" to agree with a negative statement and
use "yes" to disagree with it and make the opposite, positive statement
about the subject.  If I said "It's not worth a look" (in English), I
would interpret a "yes" to mean "Yes, it is worth a look" and a "no"
to mean "No, you're right, it isn't worth a look."

One of the best sources of online information I've found on the
design of questionnaires and surveys for usability purposes is
Jurek Kirakowski's "Questionnaires in Usability Engineering," at
  http://www.ucc.ie/hfrg/resources/qfaq1.html

Elizabeth

--
Elizabeth Buie                                        [log in to unmask]
Computer Sciences Corporation                  tel: +1.301.921.3326
15245 Shady Grove Road                         fax: +1.301.921.2069
Rockville, MD 20850  USA       (This space accidentally left blank.)

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