Phrasing of Questions Matters
I’ve been putting a lot of thought into this recently. The other day I was explaining to my room mate what I had to do to change my driver’s license over to a New York one. Somehow we got to talking about being an organ donor.
I have moved a lot over the past six or seven years. I headed off to college in a different state, after graduation I moved to another state to take a job, then I moved to New York. Every state handles the organ donor question differently. At the end of the process in New York they ask you to check a box on a form you have to sign, indicating if you would like to be an organ donor or not. The phrasing of this question is significant.
I would be really interested to see the different rates of sign ups by state and by how this question is posed. I would guess the conversion rates vary wildly from places where you have to just check a box versus places where the back of your license just says to sign it if you’re interested.
Something to think about. How a question is phrased to someone has a significant impact on their response. Questions should always be worded in a way that will illicit the most desired response.