Title: Think-aloud interviews
Course: UGQuants (SSPS) > Section: Survey Design

Think-aloud interviews

In think-aloud interviews, respondents are instructed to ‘think- aloud’ as they answer survey questions. The interviewer reads each question, then notes the process the respondent goes through to answer the question. The interviewer plays a passive role speaking only to read the question and to offer encouragement to the respondent such as “tell me what you’re thinking” if the respondent is hesitant in describing their thought process.

Think-aloud interviews have a number of key advantages. Firstly, they are free from interviewer imposed bias as the interviewer maintains a passive role in the process. Secondly, they require very little training for interviewers. Thirdly, due to the open-ended nature of the process, they can provide unexpected insights which may help in development of the survey instrument.

Think-aloud interviews are, however, not without their disadvantages. In the first instance, the process of thinking-aloud does not come naturally to many people and therefore quite often requires considerable preparation and training to be given to the respondent prior to beginning the interview. Secondly, even with training and practice some respondents resist the process, as they are simply not good at this type of activity. Thirdly, due to the open-ended nature of the process and the hands off approach of the interviewer, respondents can lose focus and stray from the question topic. Finally as the think-aloud technique requires respondents to think very carefully about their answers, perhaps more so than the process of simply completing a survey, it is possible that they may overthink their responses and potentially bias their description of the decision making process.