Business
Subtle persuasion Julian English explains how to write surveys to ensure you get the results you want. Asking survey questions in a certain way to elicit a desired response is an established marketing tool, adopted by all the great brands around the world. Indeed, Saatchi and Saatchi has a whole department whose specific goal is to help marketeers use these techniques. I wish the technique had a name, but I cannot find one frequently used term anywhere. Now before you start criticising me, or FMC, about being dishonest or manipulative, by the time you’ve finished reading this you’ll be reminded that
the subtleties of language may mean that there’s no perfectly neutral way to phrase a question or arrange an answer set. Every choice leads respondents in some direction. But let me explain what I am talking about with an example from Yes Minister – where the subject at hand is national service (conscription). In the epsiode, the character of Humphrey Appleby, played by Nigel Hawthorne, runs through two sets of questions designed to guide his unsuspecting interlocutor into two very different answers. First, came the questions in favour of conscription: 1. Are you worried about the number of young people without jobs? 2. Are you worried about the rise in crime among young adults?
Julian English is the editorial director at FMC.
30
Issue 1 2022
pg30-31 Subtle persuasion (JE).indd 30
3. Do you think there is lack of discipline in our comprehensive schools?
4. Do you think young people welcome some authority and leadership in their lives? 5. Do you think young people can respond to a challenge? 6. Would you be in favour of introducing national service? Then came the second set of questions: 1. Are you worried about the danger of war? 2. Are you worried about the growth of armaments? 3. Do you think there’s a danger in giving young people guns and teaching them how to kill? 4. Do you think it’s wrong to force people to take up arms against their will? 5. Would you oppose the reintroduction of national service?
DentalInsider 21/04/2022 10:12
