Double-Barreled Question

A double-barreled question asks about more than one construct in a single survey question. Best practices for questionnaire design discourage use of certain types of questions. Questions with unknown terms or complicated syntax should not be used when designing a questionnaire. Foremost among these recommendations is to avoid double-barreled questions.

The word and is a hallmark of a double-barreled question. Double-barreled questions most frequently arise in attitudinal questions. In these types of questions, two attitude targets (e.g. political candidates and policy decisions) are asked as one construct (e.g. Do you favor candidate X and higher taxes or candidate Y and lower taxes?). Response formation problems arise when the respondent prefers candidate X and lower taxes or candidate Y and higher taxes. Statements that align two different constructs also are double-barreled (e.g. Do you agree or disagree with the following statement: Managers in my organization are helpful, but the lack of diversity in the organization is disappointing). The word but plays the role of the conjunction and, linking two divergent question constructs into one double-barreled question.

Double-barreled questions require more time for respondents to answer than single-barreled forced choice questions. Comprehension breakdowns are responsible for part of the problems with double-barreled questions. Respondents struggle to understand exactly which construct among the multiple constructs that appear in the question wording is the most important, resulting in higher rates of requests for clarification for double-barreled questions than in single-barreled questions. Breakdowns may also occur when generating a response and in mapping the retrieved or generated response to the response options. As a result, higher rates of item nonresponse and unstable attitudes are likely to occur with double-barreled questions. This also leads to analytic problems and questions of construct validity, as the analyst does not know which “barrel” led to the respondent's answer.

Some double-barreled questions ask about one construct in the question wording, but introduce a second construct through the response options. These questions are sometimes called “one-and-a-half-barreled questions.” For example, Do you agree or disagree with Candidate Z's views on alternative fuels?, with response options of “Agree,” “Agree, and I agree with Candidate Z's stance on tax breaks for hybrid vehicles,” “Disagree,” introduces the idea of tax benefits from owning hybrid cars only in the response options. As with double-barreled questions, one-and-a-half-barreled questions lead to questions of construct validity. In this example, endorsing “Disagree” can be seen as disagreeing with the candidate's views on alternative fuels, tax benefits for hybrid vehicles, or both.

Turning a double-barreled question into two forced choice questions or two separate statements are common repairs for this questionnaire design problem. Many double-barreled questions mimic forced choice questions but differ in question wording. In a forced choice question, the respondent is asked to choose between two constructs. However, each construct in a forced choice question is asked as a separate idea (e.g. Candidate A versus Candidate B; higher taxes versus lower taxes). Hence, repairs for double-barreled questions can be accomplished by identifying the multiple constructs in the question, deleting irrelevant constructs, and separating relevant constructs into two or more questions.

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