Effect of Question Wording

Procedure

Once the subject consented they were given directions for the experiment. 33333333

Median 50 57

Mode 40 70

Range 55 45

Table 2

Average Male and Female Responses

Control Experimental

Male 55. Chomsky (1988) states that the media uses systematic propaganda in order to fulfill its role, and not only does the media know the effects of question wording it regularly uses them to employ their agenda. The views in this paper are of the author only and not of Northville High School. Also, the hypothesis suggests that the wording will have different amounts of influence on males and females. Kalton and Schuman stated that gender could be a factor that effects the strength of the question bias. This study tested question wording on yes/no questions. It shows us that there is more certainty in the experimental group then in the control group. The time the subjects were able to look at the drawing was held constant at twenty seconds. The mode speed for the control group was 40 mph. People can use these tactics to show inaccurate results. Kalton and Schuman concluded that by adding only one argument in the question the respondent answered biased towards that argument. By choosing the question from a box, which contained equal amounts of control and experimental questions (see Appendix), random assignment was ensured. They also show that there are many factors that change the ability of question wording to effect the response.