Face Advantages of Face Scales in Surveys

The information you’ll gather from a survey questionnaire of consumers or employees depends on the quality of questions you ask and the representativeness of the respondents. It also depends on the nature of the response scale you use. Researchers at Brazil’s Universidade Federal de Pernambuco compared findings from four scale types: 

• A four-point scale, with the points labeled “Not at all important,” “A little important,” “Important,” and “Very Important.” 
• A seven-point scale with a “Not at all important” label at the left of the 1 and a “Very important” label at the right of the 7. 
• A visual analogue scale consisting of a 100 mm horizontal line with a “Not at all important” label on the left of the line and a “Very important” label on the right of the line. 
• A scale on which six response alternatives were illustrated with faces.
  

     The research participants were instructed to mark on each of the four scale types their judgment of importance of characteristics of pizza, such as “Is not expensive” and “Has a pleasant texture.” The participants were also asked to assess the four scale types they’d used.
     The face scale was judged overall as among the easiest to use and as the one which best allowed for expression of feelings. This study was limited to Brazilians, mostly college students, and one food item. Still, since ease of use and accuracy in portrayal of feelings are chief objectives of survey projects, consider the face scale format.
     Researchers at Erasmus University discovered another advantage of the face scale. Their advice is directed to situations where the consumers’ primary language is not English, but the questionnaire is being administered in English.
     These researchers’ reasoning is not what you might think. Sure, if respondents don’t read English well, it makes good sense to provide pictures with universally understood meanings. However, the researchers’ argument is that even when the survey respondents can comprehend English just fine, non-native speakers interpret emotion words differently. They tend to report more intense emotions when answering in a non-native language than when using their favored language.
     “Love” and “hate” don’t feel as strong in the second as in the primary tongue. It loses something in translation. Where the Spanish-speaker might say “disagree somewhat” on the Spanish-language version, they’ll say on the English-language version, “strongly disagree.” When a face scale is used instead, this distortion is reduced, providing more useful results.

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Correct for Language Preference on Surveys 

Broaden Survey Response Scale Intervals 

Loosen Up Shoppers to Reveal Flaws