The consistency of question-order bias in a changing political context: Six large-scale surveys on trust and perceptions of pandemic governance effectiveness

Abstract

TThis study examines the issue of question-order bias in surveys by conducting six question-order experiments in large-scale Belgian surveys during the COVID-19 pandemic. The experiments focused on the sequence of questions regarding pandemic governance effectiveness and trust in different actors, revealing that question-order effects are real and fairly consistent across various replications, even with the changing political context. Additionally, the study highlights an underappreciated aspect of question-order bias, demonstrating that it also seems to exist within batteries of outcome questions.

Publication
In Governance