Response Order Effects

A response order effect occurs when the distribution of responses to a closed-ended survey question is influenced by the order in which the response options are offered to respondents. Primacy and recency effects are two common types of response order effects. Primacy effects occur when response options are more likely to be chosen when presented at the beginning of a list of response options than when presented at the end. In contrast, recency effects occur when response options are more likely to be chosen when presented at the end of a list of response options than when presented at the beginning of the list. The research literature contains myriad examples of both types of effects.

Response order effects are typically measured by presenting different groups of ...