Neutral Question

A neutral question is a question posed to a participant during data collection and stated by the investigator in a way that does not direct or bias the answer provided by the participant. Writing neutral questions can be challenging, but it is also an important aspect of collecting qualitative data. The general purpose of qualitative research is to learn about the views and experiences of participants from their own perspectives. Well-designed neutral questions allow participants to decide how they will answer a question, helping to ensure that the investigator is learning what the participant thinks instead of learning what the participant thinks the investigator wants to learn. Due to their importance, neutral questions are used in different types of qualitative data collection techniques including focus groups, in-person interviews, and telephone interviews.

Qualitative researchers pose open-ended questions that encourage participants to create and share their own options for how to respond. To encourage participants to express their perspectives freely, these questions should be stated in a neutral way in addition to being stated as open-ended. Nonneutral questions may lead participants to feel that they should answer a certain way regardless of how they really think; therefore, these questions can introduce bias into the study's findings. Questions can be perceived as leading if they indicate preferred responses or limit the range of possible responses.

Consider a qualitative study where researchers want to learn how adolescents describe their experiences with smoking. They might ask, “As you know, smoking is bad for your health. What do you think about trying to quit smoking now?” This question is not neutral because the participant may feel pressured to respond a certain way because the interviewer favors positive responses related to quitting. A more neutral question could be, “Tell me about your current smoking status.” Then, if the participant states that she or he is thinking about quitting, the interviewer could follow up and ask for more information.

Although important, neutral questions are not always easy to develop when planning questions to ask during data collection. Researchers should avoid using words that may be perceived as leading within the study's context. When possible, questions should be stated using the language of participants and not the technical terms derived from the literature on the topic. Researchers should evaluate whether there are certain responses that they might value more than others and check that this preference is not evident in the question wordings. Even with these aspects in mind, it can still be difficult to design questions that are completely neutral. Researchers should consider writing their main questions to be as broad and as neutral as possible and then follow up the responses to these open-ended questions with probes if there are specific dimensions, viewpoints, or language that need to be explored further. Finally, researchers should pilot their questions with individuals similar to the participants to see if they are perceived as neutral.