Can the wording of a response question create bias?
For our project, we purposefully manipulated two similar questions to see if we would yield biased, or different, results based on the wording. These are our results.
Question 1: Do you think race plays a significant role in criminal sentencing?
our first question yielded 96.67% of the junior class sample believing that race does play a significant role in criminal sentencing and only 3% of the sample believing that it doesn't.
The procedure we followed for attaining our results were as follows:
1. (After getting question approved from Mr. Carey and generating the randomly chosen sample from the junior class) we approached the subject
2. We followed this script: "Hi, would you mind answering a question for our class project? Do you think race plays a significant role in criminal sentencing?
3. We recorded the results on a piece of paper
The procedure we followed for attaining our results were as follows:
1. (After getting question approved from Mr. Carey and generating the randomly chosen sample from the junior class) we approached the subject
2. We followed this script: "Hi, would you mind answering a question for our class project? Do you think race plays a significant role in criminal sentencing?
3. We recorded the results on a piece of paper
Question 2: Given that African American males have the highest imprisonment rates of any demographic and make up 40.7% of prisoners serving non-violent drug offenses, while only making up 13.1% of the total U.S population, do you think race plays a significant role in criminal sentencing?
Our second question yielded expected bias results with 100% of the subjects responding yes, given the extra information provided within this question. Our procedure was identical to that of the first one, with the appropriate change of question.
Differences, Analysis, and Comparisons
Our results yielded a very small amount of bias, this may have been because many already have formed opinions based on debates, talks, and such. This chart shows and reflects how many of the people seem to already think about race and sentencing.
Source: http://www.sentencingproject.org/images/photo/incarc%20rate%20by%20race%20%26%20gender%20-%20web.png