A friend of mine who is not involved in the research business sent me this email yesterday.

Hi Diane.

I attended a conference this week and was sent this survey to fill out.

Did you watch the playback of the keynote session?
( )Yes. It was excellent.
( )Yes.  It was OK.
( )No, but I plan to.
( )No, and I am not interested.

What I want to know is where is the response “Yes and it sucked!”

Of course this was a bad survey question, which we’ve talked about before  (Bad Survey Design; Bad Web Survey Question).

But the broader point isn’t just that the research is bad, but that THE PARTICIPANTS KNOW! They can tell if their option isn’t on the list and they just won’t complete the survey if their opinion isn’t represented or will be annoyed that they weren’t able to be realistic in their answers.

My friend didn’t continue taking the survey.