Swayed by leading questions

Vanja Erčulj () and Ajda Šulc ()
Additional contact information
Vanja Erčulj: University of Maribor
Ajda Šulc: University of Maribor

Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, 2025, vol. 59, issue 1, No 9, 209 pages

Abstract: Abstract The use of leading questions as part of interrogation techniques and the factors associated with the witness suggestibility are well researched in the scientific literature. Nevertheless, literature on suggestibility in intentionally or unintentionally poorly designed social opinion surveys and push polls is scarce. The objective of this paper was to test how easily the public is swayed by leading questions in poorly designed surveys, whether certain group types of respondents in terms of their susceptibility exist, and to investigate the relationship between several demographic and personality characteristics and susceptibility. For this purpose, an online self-administered survey was conducted, containing a block of neutral and several blocks of leading questions about the respondents’ opinions on minority groups. The results indicated that the negative wording in questions was reflected in a more negative opinion on minority groups, while there are differences between respondents in their level of suggestibility. Three groups of respondents exist, i.e., non-suggestible (with no shift in opinion), suggestible (who express a more negative opinion on minorities following the suggestion), and contra-suggestible respondents (who react on the contrary and give a more positive opinion after a negative suggestion). Susceptibility to suggestion is associated with respondents’ age, openness to experience, conscientiousness, and social desirability. The results suggest that contra-suggestibility might counterbalance the error made by the leading questions, at least when more controversial topics are being surveyed.

Keywords: Leading questions; Suggestive questions; Suggestibility; Personal characteristics; Social desirability; Survey (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11135-024-01934-6 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:qualqt:v:59:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1007_s11135-024-01934-6

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/11135

DOI: 10.1007/s11135-024-01934-6

Access Statistics for this article

Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology is currently edited by Vittorio Capecchi

More articles in Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().