Is it a good idea to tell users a screener is a screener?

[toolman]

Hi there,

I am putting together a screener survey for users before an interview.

I am wondering if I should be telling users this is a screener survey or not? If I do, will they try and guess the questions to become accepted?

Any ideas on this?

[Erik_J]

@toolman

will they try and guess the questions to become accepted?

Of course they will.

IMHO it’s better to be transparent in order to level the playing field.

Also, I think it’s necessary to foresee possible answers, like in self-diagnose tests there’s usually questions that contradicts each other to detect inaccuracy.

[m_hutley]

@toolman

I am putting together a screener survey for users before an interview.

@toolman

will they try and guess the questions to become accepted?

They’re already expecting an interview. So you’re going to send them questions ahead of time.

Do you really expect them NOT to think it’s a part of the interview and answer accordingly?

[toolman]

Thanks for the replies.

Yes that is true, I guess they will know! I will just roll with it and see how it goes

[athomasg]

Going along with @Erik_J’s response, it’s not unusual to throw in unrelated questions in a screener survey so that users can’t guess the ‘right answers.’

For example, you can ask about their politics, if they’ve gone to college, or if they’ve ever lived abroad.

[m_hutley]

@athomasg

For example, you can ask about their politics, if they’ve gone to college, or if they’ve ever lived abroad.

Be careful about the questions you ask though. There are many countries with laws that prohibit you from asking certain types of question about a person.

For example, you cannot ask a person in the US if they’re married, pregnant, or have children; “if they’ve ever lived abroad” is a dangerous one too; it may be a violation of Title VII, Civil Rights Act of 1964, and expose you to discrimination lawsuits because you used the information about someone’s national origin to discriminate against them.

[athomasg]

Very true, it’s all about context. Even a survey doing a study on racial discrimination in the American workplace ensuring that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is correctly enforcing Title VII should be reviewed by a legal adviser due to its sensitive nature.

As for “living abroad,” if you’re a startup focused on people living abroad, it might be one of the only ways to find your appropriate users. But as m_hutley nicely puts it, better to be safe than sorry and ask the appropriate legal entity if this is the case.