An Easy Way to Increase Reliability and Validity for your International Surveys

Lori Shelby, Ph.D., Founder & CEO

When conducting surveys internationally, it is important to remember that not all cultures read left to right or utilize the same conventions for what is a logical order of response options. This issue primarily impacts surveys, which include parts of Asia and the MIddle East.

Researchers typically become aware of this issue when they see respondents reply inconsistently in a survey. For example, indicate they were Strongly Dissatisfied on a 5 point scale with a service, but then comment later how happy they were with the same service. When you see this across multiple surveys in your study, it is clear you have an issue. 

The easiest way to ensure that your survey questions are understood for international surveys is to not put the scale numbers in the questionnaire itself.  You can still code the numbers in your dataset behind the scenes. This way you remove the potential confusion and increase the reliability and validity of your survey responses.