¿Cómo influye el tamaño del campo de texto en las respuestas a preguntas abiertas?Evidencias de un diseño experimental

  1. León, Carmen María
  2. Eva Aizpurúa González
  3. Vázquez, David
Journal:
REMA

ISSN: 1135-6855

Year of publication: 2018

Volume: 23

Issue: 2

Pages: 1-18

Type: Article

DOI: 10.17811/REMA.23.2.2018.1-18 DIALNET GOOGLE SCHOLAR lock_openDialnet editor

More publications in: REMA

Sustainable development goals

Abstract

The visual design of questionnaires can affect the quality of the data obtained, especially when asking open-ended questions that respondents answer in their own words. In this paper, we analyze the effects of manipulating the size of the text boxes provided for answers to a set of open-ended questions in a self-administered questionnaire about opinions of the Criminal Justice system in Spain. For this, a split-ballot experiment was conducted dividing the sample (N = 100) into two equivalent halves. One half received questionnaires with small box sizes for the answers to the 16 open-ended questions while the other half received questionnaires with larger box sizes. The content on the questionnaires was the same. The results showed that those participants who received larger text boxes provided longer answers. However, manipulation of the text box did not influence 1) the number of issues addressed; or 2) response times. The results and their implications for questionnaire design are discussed.

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