Check it out in an example survey!- Add a survey with this question to your account!
Check it out in an Semantic Differential questions are a form of rating scale designed to identify the connotative meaning of objects, words, and concepts.
When to use it
Similar to a Likert question, a Semantic Differential allows you to collect many opinions in one question.
Setup
- Click the Question link on the page where you would like to add your Semantic Differential question.
- Select Semantic Differential from the Question Type dropdown and enter the question you wish to ask.
- Column headers will be added by default. These are numeric values ranging from -2 to 2 as we're specifying a range or continuum. You can edit or delete these column headers or add additional column headers. If you wish to record the numeric values but display something different you can define your own reporting values.
- By default, column headers will not display to survey respondents. If you wish to display them check the option to Show Column Headers just below your list of column headers.
- To input your row headers which are the extreme labels of your range. Use the suggested formatting: left|right. That's the left value separated from the right value with the pipe symbol. The pipe symbol is usually found on keyboards above the Return/Enter key.
Display Column Headers
By default, column headers will not display to survey respondents. If you wish to display them check the option to Show Column Headers just below your list of column headers.
Survey Taking
On a desktop and most laptops, the Semantic Differential question type looks like so.
When optimized for mobile devices the Semantic Differential question type displays as sliders; this makes it a easier to interact with as mobile respondents will be using their finger to select answers.
Note: Column headers are not supported in the mobile one-at-a-time interaction. You can turn off the one-at-a-time interaction if you wish.
Note that if a slider is left untouched, the row will be considered to be unanswered.
Reporting
Semantic Differential questions report as a grid, with values and percentages for each option selected. The left and right row headers are displayed for reference.
See additional compatible chart types
Within the Standard Report there are various chart types available for visualizing your data. The below grid shows which of the chart types Semantic Differential questions are compatible with.
See what other report types are compatible
The below grid shows which of the report types Semantic Differential questions are compatible with. If you plan to do some specific analysis within SurveyGizmo this report compatibility chart should help you choose the right question types!
| Report Type | Compatible |
|---|---|
| Standard | |
| Legacy Summary | |
| TURF | |
| Profile | |
| Crosstab | |
| Comparison |
Exporting
CSV/ Excel Exports of Semantic Differential questions will display a column for each row header.
Admin
— Dave Domagalski on 11/09/2016
@Pbach: The likely best option here is to add an image to the Semantic Differential question title. The following article should help guide you in doing so:
https://help.surveygizmo.com/help/add-image-to-question-text
I hope this helps!
David
Documentation Specialist/Survey Explorer
SurveyGizmo Customer Experience
— Pbach on 11/09/2016
I there a way to add a semantic differential grid underneath an image? Each question type exists on it's own, but I want to combine them.
Admin
— Bri Hillmer on 09/26/2016
@Russell.borland: I added a CSS Class to each of your questions and then some corresponding CSS to remove the gap where the question title would be located and also the bottom border which looked quite strange. I also turned off the required asterisks as covered in this tutorial:
https://help.surveygizmo.com/help/remove-or-customize-required-asterisk
I see that you've decided to turn off question numbers. If you decide that you'd like to have these available I would be happy to see what I can do to get these lined up. You can also reach out to our support team!
I hope this helps!
Bri
Documentation Coordinator/Survey Sorceress
SurveyGizmo Customer Experience Team
— Russell on 09/25/2016
Hi, I'm building a questionnaire with 35 separate semantic different questions. Each question has a single left and right descriptor. As such I don't a question heading - can we suppress these. I'm using which seems to work albeit there is a gap between the question number and the actual left/right question. Also, is it possible to mark all the questions as 'required' without '*' appearing in each question heading? Thanks
Admin
— Bri Hillmer on 09/13/2016
@Thaylan: I see that you reported this earlier this year. We generally prioritize issues based on the number of customers affected; because the semantic diff is not a commonly used question type this just hasn't bubbled up.
If you have answer options that you often use in the semantic diff I would recommend maybe copying the question to your question library to prevent having to key these each time you create the question.
I hope this helps!
Bri
Documentation Coordinator/Survey Sorceress
SurveyGizmo Customer Experience Team
— Thaylan on 09/13/2016
Pasting still does not work... I'm having a very hard time with it. Sometimes the right option just disappears...
Admin
— Dave Domagalski on 08/05/2016
@Serpil.erdonmez: Thank you for exploring SurveyGizmo Documentation!
The scenario that you have described is most commonly a result of having multiple, identical column headers. While having the same column header labels is fine, if you choose to do so, you will need to make sure that all the columns each have unique reporting values.
This is described in the (optional) item within the Setup section above.
I hope this helps clarify!
David
Documentation Specialist/Survey Explorer
SurveyGizmo Customer Support
— Serpil.erdonmez on 08/05/2016
Hi, I got outputs like mirror. For example, when somebody chooses just 2nd column of strong, I see that also 4th column of strong with that. How could I fix it?
Admin
— Bri Hillmer on 04/14/2016
@Joe.goldman: Hiding the column headers is covered as an option in step 3 above. You can also hide this with a little CSS. To do so access the HTML/CSS editor at the bottom of the survey preview on the Style tab. Then just paste the following code:
.sg-header-row-first{
display:none;
}
I'll dig into the pasting issue and report it to our development team as a bug!
I hope this helps!
Bri
Documentation Coordinator/Survey Sorceress
SurveyGizmo Customer Support
— Joe.goldman on 04/13/2016
The Paste In Options function on the Semantic Differential doesn't work, and is there any way to make it so the column headers are blank? I don't want number associated with this for my respondents. Thanks!