Double-barreled question: definition, examples, and how to do it

It’s no secret that survey creators want their respondent experience to be as close to perfect as possible. After all, that’s how you get accurate results and uncover insights that will drive more impact for your organization. However, to accomplish all that, you need to steer clear of things like inaccuracies, ambiguous questions, and one of the most common survey mistakes: double-barreled questions.

A double-barreled question, also known as a compound question, is a survey question that asks two different questions but only allows for a single answer.

Since they can only respond with a single answer, the results will end up skewed—never a good thing when it comes to survey data. 

Imagine a customer buys a new microwave but gets deeply frustrated by a confusing user manual. They call customer support, where a highly helpful representative patiently walks them through the programming and answers every question.

After the call, the customer receives a survey with the following question:

“How would you rate the quality of our product and customer support?”

See the problem? The customer might want to rate the product poorly but the support experience highly. Because both topics are squished into one question, they have to choose. Ultimately, the survey creator won't be able to parse the results or see that the customer actually has two entirely different measurements.

Here are more double-barreled question examples for customer experiences and employee feedback. 

So how do you fix a double-barreled question and make sure you’re following survey question best practices?

The key is to not attempt to do too much with a single question. Multitasking may be beneficial in other areas of life, but it doesn’t go well with survey questions. If you realize you have inadvertently created a double-barreled question, break it up into two separate questions.

For example, instead of asking, “How would you rate the quality of our product and customer support?” Instead ask two questions:

You could even take the survey a step further and follow up with open-ended questions that ask the respondent to explain the reason for their ratings. These text responses would provide an opportunity for the customer to share details about the excellent customer service and confusing user experience.

Once a double-barreled question is teased apart into separate questions, you’ll get the clear answers you need to take action on respondents’ feedback.

As long as you’re avoiding double-barreled questions in your surveys, remember that they aren’t the only kind of survey question mistake. Leading questions are like close cousins to double-barreled questions. Since they generally confuse respondents and muddy results, you should do everything possible to keep them out of your surveys. 

Here’s how you can spot a leading question.

It has bias, opinion, or non-neutral language that can potentially sway a respondent to a particular way of thinking. When respondents’ answers are influenced by leading questions, you can’t count on accurate survey results that truly reflect their opinions and experiences.

Let’s say a company is sending an employee engagement survey to its employees. Here’s an example of a leading question around diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI):

“Our company has been rated one of the most inclusive in our industry. How would you rate our dedication to diversity and inclusiveness?”

In this case, the sentence that appears prior to the question has set a certain level of expectation for respondents and could ultimately affect how they view (and rate) DEI at their organization.

Sometimes leading questions include unnecessary adjectives or descriptors. For instance, let’s say a post-event feedback survey asked:

“How likely is it that you would recommend this popular event to a friend or colleague?”

Saying “popular event” rather than simply “event,” guides the respondent to consider the event’s prestige, which may alter how likely they are to recommend it. The best way to keep leading questions out of your surveys is to make sure the wording of your questions is neutral and focused on the exact issue you want respondents to address. 

Okay, so double-barreled questions and leading questions are definite no-nos when it comes to survey questions. What else do you need to know about problematic survey questions and related survey mistakes? Here’s a quick cheat sheet to keep in mind:

Loaded questions are another survey mistakes. They make an assumption about the respondent and force them to provide an answer they may not agree with or find applicable to them. For example:

Since this question assumes that the respondent lives in and owns a house, a response from a renter or a condo owner would likely not lead to the kind of survey data that the survey creator needs.  

The best way to eliminate loaded questions and create more inclusive surveys is to ask preliminary screening questions and use skip logic to ensure that respondents are only seeing and answering questions that apply to them. 

You should always strive for clarity and specificity in your survey questions. Ambiguous language (i.e. any wording that isn’t immediately clear), will not only slow respondents down as they puzzle over what you mean, it will also impact the accuracy of their answers. For instance, it’s better to ask customers specific questions about how your product’s quality, price, or user experience compares to other brands than to ask them to agree or disagree with a more ambiguous statement like “Our product is better than our competitors.”

Nobody likes being backed into a corner, even in the context of survey responses. Absolutes in survey questions typically force respondents to choose yes/no answer options and include words like “always,” “never,” “every,” “all,” etc. For example: 

The “always” in this question, along with the yes/no answer choices, creates an extremely rigid survey experience for respondents. To avoid this, just say no to absolutes in your survey questions.

We touched on how bias is a big part of leading questions. It can also show up in your surveys as research bias. This includes your surveying methodology, your target population (or lack thereof), and whether your questions’ answer options are exhaustive and inclusive. Whether you’re keeping an eye out for bias in the wording of your questions or the pre-planning stage of your survey, it’s important to carefully examine how your survey questions could be perceived and whether you’re staying true to your survey’s purpose and goals.

Double-barreled questions, along with the other survey mistakes we’ve outlined here, can happen to the best of us. Luckily you can counteract the question chaos by keeping these tips in mind and taking advantage of resources like our expert-written survey templates and AI features.