Comparing survey ranking question formats in mail surveys

Jolene D. Smyth, Kristen Olson and Allison Burke

Although questions that ask respondents to rank-order a list of items can be analytically valuable, responding to ranking questions typically requires a good deal of cognitive effort.

Introduction

Questions that ask respondents to rank-order a list of items are commonly used in survey and market research to gather data on personal values and preferences. Ranking questions require respondents to order a set of objects or qualities from most desirable to least desirable (Krosnick & Alwin, 1988). This allows respondents to provide a meaningful, distinct ordering of choices, unlike rating tasks, which can encourage respondents to rate each item as equally preferable, making it difficult to determine the relative importance of the items (Krosnick & Alwin, 1988; McCarty & Shrum, 1997). In addition, Harzing, Reiche, and Pudelko (2013)...

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