Recency Effect

A recency effect is one type of response order effect, whereby the order in which response options are offered to respondents affects the distribution of responses. Recency effects occur when response options are more likely to be chosen when presented at the end of a list of response options than when presented at the beginning. In contrast, primacy effects occur when response options are more likely to be chosen when presented at the beginning of a list of response options than when presented at the end. Response order effects are typically measured by presenting response options in different orders to different groups of respondents. For example, if half of the respondents in a survey are asked, Which of the following is the most important problem ...