Wording effects on questionnaire responses: 
What impact does it have?

Language based communication is often a very imprecise means of relaying information from one entity to another. Language itself entails nuances in word meaning and cultural acceptance/understanding of words that can clutter the meaning of any message. Diction can change the tone and mood of a sentence greatly. Sentence structure can transform an easily understood message into a conglomeration of meaningless words and letters. Longer sentences can confuse or affect the response from another person. Word choice can destroy one’s understanding of a question or conversely enhance it, depending on one’s educational background, cultural upbringing, overall intelligence, etc. (Converse & Presser, 1986). Also, the harshness and strength of words used in communication can have a great effect on responses and on the connotations applied to what is being conveyed (Krosnick & Schuman, 1988). Incorrect pronunciation of words can change the meaning of a question significantly, sometimes even expressing the opposite of what is intended (Converse & Presser, 1986). The conditions under which communication is made can prevent or limit one from expressing what is true or cause exaggeration of a truth. The list of innate imperfections associated with communication built upon language goes on and on.
        All of these problems pose a particularly large dilemma for those people working in the field of psychology. Much of the time, interpretations made in this field are established utilizing language to communicate with subjects of interest. Thus, the imprecision associated with language can be detrimental to the legitimacy and/or accuracy of findings within said field of study, unless the effects of language are taking into great consideration. The purpose of our study is to prove that the stated problems associated with language communication, as well as others, do have a significant impact on the responses obtained from subjects via standard questionnaires and surveys. That is to say, we wish to prove that wording effects (defined as the effects of wording on question responses) has a considerable influence on responses to questionnaires.

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