We have composed the following list of questions to make it easier for individuals and organizations to design their own high-quality surveys. It can be extremely difficult to decide on the ideal wording of even simple questions, and having the list of questions below available for cutting/pasting in surveys should help with the design process. For this reason and those listed below, we encourage you to use these questions in your own research efforts. Of course, we expect that no individual survey will use the exact list below. Rather, we suggest that you choose the questions that fit your project’s needs and supplement with additional questions if needed.

The data on the effectiveness of animal advocacy techniques is often difficult to compare across multiple studies, as different groups and individuals use different question formats with sometimes unique metrics. For example, one group might measure age demographics in 10-year increments, whereas another might use generational gaps (Baby boomers, Generation X, etc). This also applies to questions about consumption of animal products; some might ask if a respondent has “slightly reduced” consumption whereas another might ask for the number of times a product is consumed over a one week period.

We offer examples of dietary assessment measures (i.e. Food Frequency Questionnaires, 24 Hour Recalls) that we believe will most accurately measure eating habits. We also provide some questions about vegetarianism, but it is recommended (if using those questions) to place them after any dietary assessment measures so that they are unable to bias the respondent. You may need to edit certain questions to refer to the specific program being studied or to be applicable to the target audience. Some questions also include an answer choice of “Other,” with an optional blank for elaboration. Since write-in answers must be analyzed differently from multiple choice answers, you may choose to omit the blank. On the other hand, small or qualitative studies may benefit from adding this answer choice in some places where it does not already appear.

We offer examples of dietary assessment measures (i.e. Food Frequency Questionnaires, 24 Hour Recalls) that we believe will most accurately reflect eating habits. We also provide some questions about vegetarianism, but it is recommended (if using those questions) to place them after the dietary assessment measure so that they are unable to bias the respondent. We believe that measuring dietary change is the most important way to assess veg advocacy programs and so these types of dietary questions need to be prioritized over other questions, which may mean asking fewer complementary questions if you think respondent fatigue may be an issue. A substantial dietary assessment measure will often be more useful for evaluating program success than a survey of comparable length that touches on a variety of questions.

If you are conducting studies, we encourage you to consider the questions presented below as a way to make your data more useful in analysis, and we welcome comments on this effort. If you are interested in using some of these entries but have questions, you can contact us.

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We recommend choosing one of three self-reported diet measures, either a Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ), a nontraditional FFQ, or a 24 Hour Recall (24HR). Food Frequency Questionnaires are flexible instruments for collecting dietary information that are commonly used in nutritional and medical studies. FFQs include a list of foods/beverages and a range of frequencies of consumption that respondents can select from for each food; they sometimes also include options for serving sizes. 24 Hour Recalls collect detailed data about all foods/beverages consumed in a 24 hour period, and include different prompts to help improve the accuracy of reporting. They traditionally take the form of structured interviews, but increasingly can also be self-administered online. The nontraditional FFQ we recommend asks about consumption over the past 24 hours, but only for certain specified foods. This approach has the advantage of asking about a smaller period of time (1 or 2 days), which may increase recall and has similarities to a 24HR (a 1 day time period). Its scale is also more responsive than a typical FFQ frequency scale. However, it cannot be classified as a proper 24HR given that specific consumption is not recorded (see an explanation of a 24HR in the next section), nor a FFQ because of the atypical approach to the time period and scale.

In terms of diet self-reports, traditional FFQs are our preferred instrument for non-experimental studies when frequency of consumption and/or categorization (vegetarian, omnivore, etc.) are desired outcomes. If the goal of the FFQ is to identify vegetarians or vegans, to limit over-reporting it is wise to first administer a food list, with respondents indicating only whether or not they ever eat the food in question. Following this, it is useful to ask respondents to self-identify with the label their food lists suggests they correspond with (e.g., if they indicated they ate no meat but did eat eggs and/or dairy, the next question would ask them to self-identify as a vegetarian). This is particularly important if respondents will be asked questions about this diet elsewhere in the survey to avoid frustration for those who for whatever reason have a mismatch between the food list and the way they self-identify.

We are less certain about recommending the use of traditional FFQs in experimental studies, particularly where the desired minimum detectable effect risks going undetected within the frequency scale ranges. For experimental studies, we anticipate that a proper 24-HR (e.g. the ASA24) is the best method, but we recognize that this is an involved process and so hope to have more information soon on how other types of self-reported measures (traditional FFQs and its variations) perform in experimental contexts.

Two unpublished studies have suggested that including plant-based foods in food lists does not limit under-reporting of animal product consumption. While further study of this question would be useful, our current recommendation is that surveys ask only about the foods they’re interested in, to limit respondent burden.

To read more about how to use these measures, please visit our supplemental page on Dietary Assessment Measures. You may also download either of the below tables in *.doc format.

Current Diet

1. (FFQ)¹ Thinking about your diet over the past three months, please select the responses that best describe how often you eat each type of food and how much of it you eat at a time. Select only one frequency per row, even if different responses have been correct for different days or weeks.

How often, in the past 3 months, did you eat the following?	never	Less than 1 time per MONTH	1-3 times per MONTH	Once per WEEK	2-4 times per WEEK	5-6 times per WEEK	Once per DAY	2-3 times per DAY	4 or more times per DAY
Meat (any type of meat, including beef, pork, chicken, turkey, fish, shellfish, or other meats)
Beef (hamburger, steak, roast beef, meatloaf, in stews / lasagna / pasta / pizza / etc.)
Pork (bacon, ham, pork chops, spare ribs, bacon bits, etc.)
Chicken (wings, nuggets, chicken breast, chicken sandwich, in soup, etc.)
Turkey (turkey dinner, turkey sandwich, turkey burger, turkey bacon, in soup, etc.)
Fish, not including shellfish (salmon, tuna, fish sticks, haddock, fish & chips, etc.)
Shellfish (lobster, shrimp, scallops, oyster, crab, etc.)
Other meats (duck, lamb/sheep, goat, bison, etc.)
Dairy (cheese, milk, yogurt, ice cream, butter, etc.)
Eggs (boiled, fried, omelet, in salad, in baked goods, etc.)

 

2. (Nontraditional FFQ) In the past day, how many times did you consume the following foods and drinks?

Think about all the meals and snacks you ate. Also think about everything you had at home or outside the home. It is important that you report everything in the below categories that you had to eat or drink during this time. The past day refers to the previous day (from midnight to midnight). Please take your time.

 

In the past day, how many times did you consume the following foods and drinks?	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10+
Meat (any type of meat, including beef, pork, chicken, turkey, fish, shellfish, or other meats)
Beef (hamburger, steak, roast beef, meatloaf, in stews / lasagna / pasta / pizza / etc.)
Pork (bacon, ham, pork chops, spare ribs, bacon bits, etc.)
Chicken (wings, nuggets, chicken breast, chicken sandwich, in soup, etc.)
Turkey (turkey dinner, turkey sandwich, turkey burger, turkey bacon, in soup, etc.)
Fish, not including shellfish (salmon, tuna, fish sticks, haddock, fish & chips, etc.)
Shellfish (lobster, shrimp, scallops, oyster, crab, etc.)
Other meats (duck, lamb/sheep, goat, bison, etc.)
Dairy (cheese, milk, yogurt, ice cream, butter, etc.)
Eggs (boiled, fried, omelet, in salad, in baked goods, etc.)

The following question is a simplified way of determining whether respondents are vegetarian or vegan, or avoid certain animal products. It does not allow some other forms of meat-reduction to be recognized, so it is less informative than the Food Frequency Questionnaires above. Any food list and corresponding memory aids from the Dietary Assessment document could be used as the response set.

3. Which of the following types of food do you eat? (check all that apply)

• Meat (any type of meat, including beef, pork, chicken, turkey, fish, shellfish, or other meats)
• Beef (hamburger, steak, roast beef, meatloaf, in stews/lasagna/pasta/pizza, etc.)
• Pork (bacon, ham, pork chops, spare ribs, bacon bits, etc.)
• Chicken (wings, nuggets, chicken breast, chicken sandwich, in soup, etc.)
• Turkey (turkey dinner, turkey sandwich, turkey burger, turkey bacon, in soup, etc.)
• Fish, not including shellfish (salmon, tuna, fish sticks, haddock, fish & chips, etc.)
• Shellfish (lobster, shrimp, scallops, oyster, crab, etc.)
• Other meats (duck, lamb/sheep, goat, bison, etc.)
• Dairy (cheese, milk, yogurt, ice cream, butter, etc.)
• Eggs (boiled, fried, omelet, in salad, in baked goods, etc.)

The following question can be useful for determining how respondents self-identify, but is not a good means of determining whether respondents eat animal-based foods, due to frequent misreporting even in neutral situations. It should not be used to replace questions that appear before it in this section.

4. a. Which of these best describes what you currently eat?

• Atkins Diet – eat low-carbohydrate, high protein foods
• Paleolithic Diet – consists of fish, meats, eggs, vegetables, fruit, fungi, roots, and nuts
• Pescatarian Diet – eat fish, egg, and milk products, but no other meat (including chicken)
• Vegetarian Diet – eat egg and milk products, but no meat (including fish or chicken)
• Vegan Diet – eat no meat (including fish or chicken), milk products, egg, or other animal products
• Meat Reduction Diet – A diet attempting to reduce meat consumption, example Meatless Mondays
• Mediterranean Diet – A diet mimicking the traditional dietary patterns of southern Italy
• No specific diet – A diet with no specific preferences or exclusions
• Other (please specify) ______________

b. When did you start your current diet? A rough date is fine.

Year _____ Month ______________ [drop down menus for online administration, write-in blanks for paper administration]

Former Diet

If using question 5 or 6 and the individual responds with “yes,” we suggest using part (b) as a secondary check, as people often misreport their status as a vegetarian or vegan.

5. a. Have you ever eaten a vegetarian diet (one with no meat)?

• Yes
• No

b. Which foods did you eat when you were consuming a vegetarian diet? (check all that apply)

• Meat (any type of meat, including beef, pork, chicken, turkey, fish, shellfish, or other meats)
• Beef (hamburger, steak, roast beef, meatloaf, in stews/lasagna/pasta/pizza, etc.)
• Pork (bacon, ham, pork chops, spare ribs, bacon bits, etc.)
• Chicken (wings, nuggets, chicken breast, chicken sandwich, in soup, etc.)
• Turkey (turkey dinner, turkey sandwich, turkey burger, turkey bacon, in soup, etc.)
• Fish, not including shellfish (salmon, tuna, fish sticks, haddock, fish & chips, etc.)
• Shellfish (lobster, shrimp, scallops, oyster, crab, etc.)
• Other meats (duck, lamb/sheep, goat, bison, etc.)

6. a. Have you ever eaten a vegan diet (one with no animal products including meat, dairy, eggs, etc.)?

• Yes
• No

b. Which foods did you eat when you were consuming a vegan diet? (check all that apply)

• Meat (any type of meat, including beef, pork, chicken, turkey, fish, shellfish, or other meats)
• Beef (hamburger, steak, roast beef, meatloaf, in stews/lasagna/pasta/pizza, etc.)
• Pork (bacon, ham, pork chops, spare ribs, bacon bits, etc.)
• Chicken (wings, nuggets, chicken breast, chicken sandwich, in soup, etc.)
• Turkey (turkey dinner, turkey sandwich, turkey burger, turkey bacon, in soup, etc.)
• Fish, not including shellfish (salmon, tuna, fish sticks, haddock, fish & chips, etc.)
• Shellfish (lobster, shrimp, scallops, oyster, crab, etc.)
• Other meats (duck, lamb/sheep, goat, bison, etc.)
• Dairy (cheese, milk, yogurt, ice cream, butter, etc.)
• Eggs (boiled, fried, omelet, in salad, in baked goods, etc.)

Future Diet

7. Do you have any specific intentions of changing your diet for the following foods? Please indicate how. (Meat, Beef, Pork, Chicken, Turkey, Fish, not including shellfish, Shellfish, Other meats, Dairy, Eggs)

• Start eating
• Eat more
• Eat the same amount
• Eat less
• Stop eating
• Continue to not eat this food

Barriers

The two questions below address related behaviors with slightly different focuses. Question 8 appears more neutral, and may be a better choice if the respondent is not expected to know at this point in the survey that the survey is conducted by an animal advocacy group or about vegetarianism (or meat reduction more generally). Question 9 more directly addresses the barriers to vegetarianism, particularly for respondents who have already indicated that they would consider being vegetarian but are not. Either question could be adapted to refer to veganism or all animal products, but we provide them in this form because eating other animal products is even more normalized than eating meat, and we believe respondents’ motivations for eating them are likely correspondingly more obscure to them.

8. If you currently eat meat, why? Choose the most important reason.

• I like the taste.
• Vegetarian foods are too expensive.
• It is good for my health.
• Avoiding meat doesn’t help animals.
• It is natural to eat meat.
• It would be inconvenient not to.
• My friends or family eat meat.
• I don’t have a specific reason.
• Not applicable; I am vegetarian or vegan.

9. If you are not vegetarian, why not? Choose the most important reason.

• I like the taste of meat.
• Vegetarian foods are too expensive.
• Meat is good for my health.
• Avoiding meat doesn’t help animals.
• It is natural to eat meat.
• It would be inconvenient.
• My friends or family eat meat.
• I don’t have a specific reason.
• Not applicable; I do not eat meat.

Motivations

10. If you are vegetarian or vegan, why? Choose the most important reason.

• I like the taste.
• Meat or other animal products are too expensive.
• It is good for my health.
• It helps animals.
• It is good for the environment.
• It is required or encouraged by my religion.
• Some of my friends or family are vegetarian or vegan.
• I don’t have a specific reason.
• Not applicable; I eat meat.

Attitudes and Beliefs

11. Do you agree or disagree that farmed animals have individual personalities just like dogs and cats?

• Strongly Disagree
• Disagree
• No Opinion
• Agree
• Strongly Agree

12. Do you agree or disagree that eating animal products (like meat, eggs, and dairy) directly contributes to the suffering of animals?

• Strongly Disagree
• Disagree
• No Opinion
• Agree
• Strongly Agree

Miscellaneous Evaluative

13. Have you discussed the [program the survey intends to evaluate] with friends or family?

• Yes
• No

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1. While this and other questions are presented here in response grid style, they could also be asked as a series of individual questions about each food item, such as “In the past day, how many times did you consume meat (any type of meat, including beef, pork, chicken, turkey, fish, shellfish, or other meats)?” Each type of presentation has benefits and drawbacks. For more information, see Couper, M. (2008). Designing effective web surveys. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 

Social Desirability

Ideally, studies should control for social desirability bias (the tendency for responses to reflect what is presumed to be desired, rather than the truth) through overall design. Specifically, studies should not reveal their purpose or the fact that they are being conducted by an animal advocacy group prior to asking questions believed to be affected by social desirability bias. In the event that such control is not possible, we propose controlling for social desirability bias through scores on the following short form of the Marlowe-Crowne scale (Reynolds’s Form C). See our supplemental page for information on scoring the scale and using scores to address the presence of social desirability bias in survey responses.

Response options of True and False should be provided for each statement.

14. Listed below are a number of statements concerning personal attitudes and traits. Read each item and decide whether the statement is True or False as it pertains to you personally.

It is sometimes hard for me to go on with my work if I am not encouraged.	T	F
I sometimes feel resentful when I don’t get my way.	T	F
On a few occasions, I have given up doing something because I thought too little of my ability.	T	F
There have been times when I felt like rebelling against people in authority even though I knew they were right.	T	F
No matter who I’m talking to, I’m always a good listener.	T	F
There have been occasions when I took advantage of someone.	T	F
I’m always willing to admit it when I make a mistake.	T	F
I sometimes try to get even rather than forgive and forget.	T	F
I am always courteous, even to people who are disagreeable.	T	F
I have never been irked when people expressed ideas very different from my own.	T	F
There have been times when I was quite jealous of the good fortune of others.	T	F
I am sometimes irritated by people who ask favors of me.	T	F
I have never deliberately said something that hurt someone’s feelings.	T	F

Demographics

Demographic questions can be sensitive, causing people to abandon the survey, especially if they are required. We recommend saving any of these questions for the end of the survey and programming web surveys not to require answers to them unless absolutely required for the purpose of the survey.

15.What is your current gender identity?

• Female, including transgender female
• Male, including transgender male
• Genderqueer/gender non-conforming, non-binary, or different identity
• Prefer not to answer

16. What is your age?

• [Drop-down box with ages in years (e.g., “13 or under, 14, 15…”) for online administration]
• [Write-in line for paper administration]

17. What race/ethnicity do you consider yourself? (Select all that apply)

• African American or Black
• Asian
• European/Caucasian
• Indian
• Middle Eastern
• Latino, Hispanic, or Spanish
• Native American
• Pacific Islander
• Other (please specify) ______________

18. What is the highest grade of school or the highest degree you have completed?

• Less than 12th grade, no diploma
• High school diploma (or equivalent)
• Some education past high school, no degree
• Associate’s degree or other non-Bachelor degree
• Bachelor’s degree
• Graduate or professional degree

19. In what state do you currently live? Please select from the list below.

• [Drop-down box with 50 states, District of Columbia, U.S. Territory, and “Other”]
• [Write-in line for paper administration]

20. Which of the following best describes where you live?

• City
• Suburb
• Rural Area

21. What is your household income?

• less than $24,999
• $25,000 to $49,999
• $50,000 to $74,999
• $75,000 to $99,999
• $100,000 or more

22. If you actively practice a particular religion, please select it from the list below:

• Buddhist
• Christian (Catholic, Protestant, etc.)
• Hindu
• Jewish
• Muslim
• Spiritual practice not associated with a specific religion
• Other
 (please specify) ______________
• Do not actively practice a particular religion

23. Do you or have you lived with a pet that you interacted with regularly? (can select multiple boxes)

• Cat
• Dog
• Other
• None

24. Do you have access to the Internet at home or through your phone?

• Yes
• No