Scales, Forced Choice

Forced Choice as an Alternative to Check-All-That-Apply Question Format

The forced choice question format was proposed in 1982 by Seymour Sudman and Norman Bradburn, as an alternative to the check-all-that-apply format. A check-all-that-apply format asks respondents to answer a question by checking all the response options that they think apply to them. An example would be “Please indicate which of the following social networks you have used to communicate with your friends in the last week by [Page 1553]checking all that apply.” A common issue with this type of question format is the tendency of respondents to select relevant items that appear early in the list of response items (i.e., primacy effect) to minimize processing effort. This primacy effect can be reduced with forced choice questions as respondents are forced to consider response options later in the list in order to choose one response item.

On the other hand, other respondents prefer avoiding actively thinking about questions and retrieving information in order to choose response items. This is common in questions perceived as difficult, burdensome, or of unfamiliar content or context. As a result, the use of forced choice questions was suggested to encourage respondents to improve the quality of their responses, as it requires increased cognitive processing. Researchers argue that force choice questions simulate interview format questions as respondents are expected to actively consider each response option, hence limiting the satisficing response behaviors of respondents.

An example of a forced choice question in a health communication study would

...