Branching

Branching is a questionnaire design technique used in survey research that utilizes skip patterns to ensure that respondents are asked only those questions that apply to them. This technique allows the questionnaire to be tailored to each individual respondent so that respondents with different characteristics, experiences, knowledge, and opinions are routed to applicable questions (e.g. questions about a treatment for diabetes are only asked to respondents who have been diagnosed with diabetes).

Branching also is used to ask respondents to choose among a large number of response options without requiring them to keep all the response options in working memory (e.g. respondents can be asked whether they identify with the Republican or Democratic party and then asked how strongly they identify with the relevant party ...