Are you buying me a house?
Often while
doing fieldwork, we come across respondents who don’t understand the
questionnaire and tend to interrogate more about the same. They usually find questions bizarre and challenging.
We recently did a psychometric study for the University of Virginia on Environment, travel, and well-being in Delhi. The study tried to understand how the residents of Delhi feel about their surroundings and environment.
Enumerator: “Where would you like to live in Delhi?”
Respondent: “Why? Are you buying a house for me?”
Further, after this question, she also seemed a little irritated on the kind of questions that were being asked and started to focus on her work.
Thus, we can observe that even simple questions can often become the reason for respondent’s fatigue if the background of the study and the type of questions that will be asked are not explained in the right manner. This implies that it is crucial to make sure that before starting any survey the enumerators must explain the background of the study and the type of questions in a proper manner.
