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PLAN GALLERY LXXXIX
GALLERY LXXXIX

The Question

Ask the same thing two ways and get two societies. Question wording, order and response options do not merely measure opinion; within a wide band they produce it.

Charles Horton Cooley
ON THE FLOOR
Charles Horton Cooley
Theorist designate - flagged from the theory registry (#8494)
“You learned who you are by watching what other people reflected back at you. The mirror, it turns out, was people all along.”
Edward Soja
ON THE FLOOR
Edward Soja
Theorist designate - flagged from the theory registry (#8494)
“Space is not the stage the story happens on - it is one of the actors. Ask WHERE, and half the mystery answers itself.”
George Herbert Mead
ON THE FLOOR
George Herbert Mead
Theorist designate - flagged from the theory registry (#8494)
“The self is a conversation: the I speaking, the Me listening with everyone else's ears. You rehearse society every time you think.”
LAB2-016 · The Question — Open the drawer
A two-version survey instrument used in experimental social science to test how question wording and response-option order affect respondent answers on identical topics, demonstrating that measurement itself shapes the data collected.
LAB2-017 · The Question — What is this thing?
A postcard-format survey instrument from the Literary Digest's failed 1936 presidential preference poll, which predicted Landon's landslide over Roosevelt but was decisively wrong, exposing how question design and sample selection shape outcomes.
LAB2-018 · The Question — Read the source
Two versions of an identical survey question about government spending, worded differently and presented with reversed response options, used to demonstrate how question design shapes answers independently of actual opinion.
LAB2-019 · The Question — Map it / time it
Paired questionnaire versions testing identical topics with varied wording, used in large-scale attitude research to isolate question-effect from genuine opinion change across regions and years.
LAB2-020 · The Question — Two sources disagree
Two versions of a single survey question on job guarantees, distributed randomly to matched samples in 1974, produced significantly different response distributions—demonstrating that question wording itself, not underlying attitude, can shift answers by 10–15 percentage points.
LAB2-021 · The Question — State the claim
Two versions of identical survey questions about government spending, with single-word variations in wording, administered to matched samples in the same week to isolate question-effect from attitude change.
LAB2-022 · The Question — Take the other side
A paired-question survey instrument testing wording effects on abortion attitudes, demonstrating that despite measurable framing shifts, underlying opinion trends remain stable across decades when measured with consistent methodology.
LAB2-023 · The Question — Weigh it
A National Opinion Research Center codebook documenting parallel survey questions asked of random subsamples, showing identical attitude topics worded differently to measure question-effect magnitude against real opinion change.
LAB2-024 · The Question — Build the answer
A 1970s GSS questionnaire page showing two versions of identical questions with different wording, response scales, and orderings—the methodological artifact that revealed how question design itself shapes measured public opinion.
LAB2-025 · The Question — For the file
Paired questionnaire variants testing whether identical survey questions asked in different word orders or phrasings produce measurably different response distributions, demonstrating that survey design itself shapes reported social attitudes.
LAB2-026 · The Question — Go and look
Paired questionnaire cards from the GSS that posed identical survey questions in different word orders and response framings to random samples, revealing how question design itself shaped reported attitudes on identical topics.
LAB2-027 · The Question — Now, today
Two versions of an identical survey question about school funding, worded differently to elicit contrasting responses. Demonstrates how question framing—not underlying opinion—can shift aggregate answers by 15–25 percentage points in real time.
LAB2-028 · The Question — Teach it back
A paired set of survey instruments asking identical substantive questions with varied wording, response scales, and item order—demonstrating how question design produces measurable shifts in reported opinion independent of actual attitude change.
LAB2-029 · The Question — The other place
Paired questionnaires on immigration attitudes administered to matched French samples, one asking about 'immigrants' and one about 'North Africans,' revealing how referent specificity reshapes response distributions without changing underlying scale or methodology.
LAB2-030 · The Question — One object, close
A paired questionnaire testing whether asking about 'welfare' versus 'assistance to the poor' produced different response distributions on identical policy questions, demonstrating question-wording effects in survey design.
🎧 A moment to consider
What will you carry out of this room?
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