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When constructing a survey question is it correct to ask a respondent:

Which of the statements do you agree with more?

Agreement seems like it should be binary. To agree with one thing more than another turns agreement into a sliding scale. Is there a better way to ask the respondent's preference?

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Surveys commonly ask people to rate their feelings towards various statements, asking if they strongly agree, agree, disagree, or strongly disagree. That said, you could always ask something like: "Which of the following statements best represents your viewpoint?" – onomatomaniak Dec 31 '11 at 14:33
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Just a personal opinion, but I think the more (most?!) common wording is probably "Which of the statements do you agree with most?" – FumbleFingers Dec 31 '11 at 15:27
Note to explain my edit to question: I deleted the single-word-request tag and added terminology and word-usage tags. I disagree with some premises of the question but didn't edit them, and didn't vote on the question. – jwpat7 Dec 31 '11 at 16:38
jwpat - I've used some of the other SE sites quite a bit but am pretty new to this community. I'd love any pointers on how to ask better questions :) – RSG Dec 31 '11 at 18:36

1 Answer

up vote 5 down vote accepted

I think it's perfectly okay to say "I agree with you up to a point" or I partly agree with you", so similarly you can agree with one statement more than another. You could agree with both statements, but one suits your own opinions better. For example: "Scotland should have more autonomy" and "Scotland should have independence". If I was a nationalist, I would probably agree with both statements, but I would certainly agree more with the second.

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