The survey is generally regarded to be the "least cumbersome method" to acquire insight into people's opinions and attitudes (Dijkstra & Van der Zouwen 1982: 2). However, all sorts of seemingly irrelevant characteristics of the question wording and the survey context influence how respondents report their attitudes (e.g. Tourangeau, Rips & Rasinski 2000). In my research, I attempt to explain these so-called wording effects by relating them to the cognitive processes underlying question answering. Therefore, my research fits well with TiCC.

Besides investigating question answering processes in surveys, I am investigating whether wording effects also occur in Voting Advice Applications, like Stemwijzer en Kieskompas. This latter research is related to a four year research project granted by NWO. On this website you can read more about this research project, which connects researchers from different universities in the Netherlands. Besides wording effects in VAAs we also investigate other aspects of VAAs in this research project. Do VAA users understand the questions in a VAA, and do they understand the voring advice provided to them? Do citizens have a better understanding of the political issues at stake when they have filled out a VAA? And does VAA usage lead to an increased turnout at the elections?  

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