Abstract
In a survey which is based on the questionnaire method, it is the general principle that negative questions are avoided. In the present study, however, the author used one affirmative and two negative questions of a sample of 379 primary school pupils concerning their likes and dislikes of 5 different foods. In a comparartive analysis of thses questions, responses to them were more or less similar but when the responses to the first, second and third questions were examined on an individual basis, some measure of difference was found between the first one and the latter two questions.
The general trend was that, when asked about oranges, chocolate, etc., which the children generally like, their responses ranged from“not either”to“do not dislike them”. When asked about the foods generally shunned by children, on the other hand, the responses ranged from“like them”or“do not like them” to“neither”in a great proportion of the children under study, the foods in this class being the carrot, leek, etc. As a result, their responses were unstable.
It is concluded from these findings that, by using a questionnaire in which the affirmative and negative questions are combined, we are enabled to grasp realistically the likes and dislikes of children about the foods.
