Monday, December 7, 2009

Asking about intentions can have unexpected effects ...

We all know the value of a prompting question like "do you see yourself as someone who helps people in need?" in increasing the likelihood of subsequent action.

However, sometimes these can have the reverse effect - according to a study investigating the effect of questions about future behaviour (When Does the Past Repeat Itself? The Role of Self-Prediction and Norms), asking a high-volume user can actually reduce the behaviour (a crude example could be: asking a frequent donor "do they donate to charity?" actually causing a decrease in the frequency of their donations).

It seems that in these cases the question actually highlights to the individual the fact of their high-volume activity (frequent donations) and this self-awarenss then causes them to reconsider (so the effect of the question, on high-frequency donors, would be to reduce their frequency of donation).

So: use data to inform when you should use leading questions, as well as using it to determine what question to ask.

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