A student says: “Asking 25 open-ended questions will get us deeper insights, so that’s always better than multiple choice.” Based on survey design principles, what’s the best evaluation of this comment?

Question

BlackTom AI · Accepted Answer

The prompt presents a student claim about survey design: that asking 25 open-ended questions will inherently yield deeper insights and is always better than using multiple-choice questions. Option analysis:

Option: 'Incorrect — Too many open-ended questions overwhelm participants and reduce response quality.'
- This statement is highlighting a key principle in survey design: while open-ended questions can provide rich, nuanced data, they also impose a higher cognitive and time burden on respondents. When the number of such questions is large, participants may experience fatigue, provide less thoughtful answers, skip items, or abandon the survey, all of which can compromise data quality. Therefore, asserting that more open-ended questions universally yield better insights is not valid; it ignores the trade-offs between depth and response quality.

Why this option is incorrect in its framing:
- The option correctly notes a potential downside (overload and reduced response quality) but labels the student’s overall stance as incorrect rather than acknowledging the nuance. The student’s claim that 25 open-ended questions consistently produce deeper insights fails to account for respondent burden, coding/analysis workload, and nonresponse bias. The best practice is to balance question types, pilot test to gauge burden, and use a mix of open-ended and closed-ended items to maximize both insight and response rate.

Why there is a misconception here:
- It is not that open-ended questions cannot yield deep insights; rather, they require careful implementation (e.g., limiting total open-ended items, ensuring questions are clear, and planning for qualitative analysis). The blanket assertion that open-ended is always superior disregards the practical constraints of survey length, respondent fatigue, and coding resources.

In summary, the statement identifies a legitimate risk of too many open-ended questions but mischaracterizes the overall principle by calling the student’s claim completely incorrect rather than recognizing the nuanced trade-off between depth and response quality.

Principles of Marketing Quiz 2.1 - Analytics - Summer 2025

A student says: “Asking 25 open-ended questions will get us deeper insights, so that’s always better than multiple choice.” Based on survey design principles, what’s the best evaluation of this comment?

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