Option list question structure

QSopt: option list

This is likely to be one of the most used types of question, and is the most versatile and powerful. For this reason, it is vital that considerable care is taken to ensure that these questions tend more towards mediation than towards polarization.

For questions where the answers have an inherent order along one dimension, use QSlevel instead, as a special case with extra functionality.

Question attributes:

• QTitle: @lang; question title used for link text; mandatory
• QDescrip: question description: further question elaboration / explanation; optional; @lang
• QMultiB: can the Q have multiple answers?
• QOtherB: does the Q allow "other" at the end?
• QNI: number of items, and for each item:
• QItemShort: short item text @lang
• QItemLong: long item text @lang

Wants/Answers:

• Wants and answers are both coded as bit patterns: first item shown is 1, next is 10, etc.
• For wants, interface gives a check box for each item.
• If more than one answer is possible, answer interface gives a check box for each item.
• If only one answer is possible, answer interface gives radio buttons for the items.

Preventing misuse

One of the ways of preventing this question type being misused is to try to make all the lists of options coherent and complete. Incomplete question lists might be like, e.g., "which of the following football teams do you support?" with an incomplete list. It might be OK, for example, to follow a question "Do you support a team in the Premier League?" with a sub-question listing all those clubs, though that question would need to be revised every year so it wouldn't be a very good question.

Another is to give an adequate range of responses. For example, if there were a question "What is your position on Brexit?" it would not be acceptable to have just two answers. Having only two answers would be a classic case of promoting polarization. As a first rule of thumb, all personal position or attitude questions should have at least 5 answers, they should not be able to be split into two clear groups, and they should probably have an "other" or "none of the above" option.