Ethical Issues Essay Research Paper IntroductionAn individual

Ethical Issues Essay, Research Paper

Introduction

An individual’s opinion on ethical issues can be altered by the manner in which information is presented to him. In addition to the subject matter contained in the information, the implicit tone and wordings used in the text can have a significant impact on the opinion of the reader. In a similar manner, the phrasing of the questions asked can also alter a person’s response to a certain ethical issue. Schwarz (1999) observed that the validity of the survey data depends partly on how questions are worded. This phenomenon was illustrated in a study conducted by the Gallup Organization (1998) in which the responses of the people regarding the popularity of President Clinton after his affair with a White House intern were obtained. When the survey was conducted in order to question people about their opinion on President Clinton exclusively, 40% voted in his favor (a 20% drop from previous polls). However, the very next day, when the same query was made regarding several prominent personalities including President Clinton, 55% of the respondents were in support of President Clinton. The manner in which the question was presented to the people caused a variation in the results of the two surveys.

The objective of this experiment is to explore how the framing of survey questions influences responses. The survey will study whether the opinions of people regarding the practice of abortion vary with respect to the way the question inquiring their view on that issue is phrased. In this study, two groups of people will be asked a question to learn of their stance on abortion. One group will respond to a question that poses abortion as a meaningful solution to compelling circumstances. The other group will be given a question that portrays the practice of abortion as a social evil.

It is hypothesized that the framing of the question influences people’s responses. Therefore, more people will favor abortion when it is depicted as a solution to misery, whereas more people will be against abortion when it is portrayed as a selfish reaction of parents to the conception of a child.

Methods

Participants:

The forty participants (20 males and 20 females) were randomly selected among the freshmen students of Amherst College. These freshmen students are residents of South and North Dormitories.

Procedure:

Two survey forms were designed to investigate the response of the participants on the issue of abortion. The question in each survey differed in the way it was phrased. The question in one survey (pro-choice) depicts abortion as a required solution to alleviate a woman from misery, whereas the other survey (pro-life) describes abortion as a merciless murder of human life. The questions on the two surveys were framed as follows:

Survey A: Do you think it is proper for a woman, who has become pregnant through a horrible rape, to have an abortion?

Survey B: Do you think it is right to kill through abortion helpless babies simply due to the selfish motives of parents?

Each survey was randomly given to 10 males and 10 females to ensure that results are not greatly affected due to a disproportionate gender ratio. The participants were instructed to read the questionnaire carefully and respond on a one-to-five scale with 1 being “disagree strongly” and 5 being “agree strongly.”

One independent variable used in this experiment was the wording of the question. The dependent variable is the response of the participants to the questions posed. If the hypothesis was correct that the framing of the question will influence participants’ responses, then there will be a significantly higher percentage of participants inclined towards favoring abortion on the pro-choice survey, whereas a correspondingly low percentage of those on the pro-life survey.

Results

The following averages of the responses were obtained for the two surveys:

Survey A (on scale of 5): Pro- Choice

Males 4.5

Females 5.0

Overall Average 4.75

Survey B (on scale of 5): Pro-Life

Males 1.5

Females 3

Overall Average 2.25

It can be observed from the data and the graphical presentation that the participants in the two surveys responded very differently to the questionnaire. The participants that were given the pro-choice survey showed highly strong inclinations in favor of abortion, and the average was computed as 4.75. On the other hand, the results from the pro-life survey suggest that participants were generally indifferent or against abortion. The average on the response scale was calculated as 2.25. These results are in strong agreement with our hypothesis that the response of an individual is a function of the way the question is phrased for him/her.

Discussion

The study demonstrates that people tend to be influenced by the way the questions asked to them are framed. That opinion, as a result of a biased question, might not reflect the true judgment of the individual, but could be simply the result of the way he/she was asked his/her opinion. As predicted by the first hypothesis, the tone and wording of simple information can alter an individual’s conclusion regarding ethical issues. The phrasing of the question, in this case, is a representation of a scenario

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