A Likert scale is a rating scale used in survey research to measure attitudes, beliefs, and opinions. Respondents rate how much they agree or disagree with a statement on a numbered scale—typically from strongly disagree to strongly agree.
Likert scales have been a staple of research for nearly a century, and you’ve almost certainly filled one out, even if you didn’t know the name. This guide covers how they work, when to use even vs. odd scales, and best practices for your next survey.
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What is a Likert scale?
A Likert scale is a rating scale used in research to measure attitudes, beliefs, opinions, or perceptions about a particular topic.
The name comes from its inventor, psychologist Rensis Likert, who developed the concept in the 1930s. The scale consists of a series of numbered response options, ranging from strongly disagree to strongly agree.
Quantifying participants’ attitudes this way makes the results easy to analyze.
Types of Likert scales
You can run a Likert scale survey with either an even or odd number of options. The choice depends largely on the type of data you want from your survey.
Even Likert scale
Even Likert scales have an even number of options. A 4-point scale, for example, might offer strongly disagree, disagree, agree, and strongly agree.
The lack of a neutral option forces survey respondents to pick one direction.
Odd Likert scale
Sometimes you don’t want to force a choice. Odd Likert scales include a neutral middle option, letting participants indicate they have no strong feelings about the question.
How do I choose a Likert scale?
The type of questions you’re asking usually determines whether a neutral option is appropriate. Keep the following in mind:
Even-numbered scales can provide more fine-grained data by forcing an answer in a specific direction. But this only works if you’re surveying an attitude where it’s reasonable to force an answer.
For questions where people genuinely hold a neutral opinion, forcing a choice produces random answers that cloud the data rather than illuminate opinions.
Benefits of Likert scales
Likert scales remain the gold standard in surveys about people’s attitudes and opinions. They aren’t suitable for every scenario, but several benefits keep them a go-to survey construct.
Easy to administer
Likert scale options are intuitive enough that respondents need no specialized instructions. Because they’re easy to understand, you can administer these surveys easily and get accurate results.
Quantifiable data
Attitudes and opinions are inherently subjective. By assigning them a numerical value, the Likert scale turns them into easily quantifiable data.
Easy to analyze
Because the data is quantifiable, it’s also easy to analyze. You can examine the results of a Likert scale survey through various statistical measurements.
High reliability
Over the near-century they’ve been in use, Likert scales have repeatedly produced consistent, stable results. The data is accurate for a single use and useful for comparisons over time.
Flexibility
Given their simplicity, Likert scales suit measuring opinions on nearly any topic.
Affordability
Easy administration, easy analysis, and intuitive options make Likert scales one of the most affordable tools at a researcher’s disposal.
Likert scale use cases and examples
Here’s how the scales work in a few common real-world scenarios.
Customer satisfaction
Companies commonly use Likert scales to measure . They ask customers to rate how much they agree or disagree with statements about various aspects of a product or service.
Organizations can use the results to identify areas for improvement and increase .
A similar measure, the , also typically uses Likert scales. Rather than asking for an opinion on a product or service, NPS surveys ask respondents how likely they are to recommend it to a friend.
Employee engagement
Companies can use Likert scales to measure by asking employees to rate their agreement with statements about the workplace.
For example, a Likert scale might with job security, recognition, or communication. The results can help businesses identify areas for improvement and and productivity.
Political views
Polling companies often use Likert scales to measure political views, asking respondents to rate their agreement with political statements—on issues like immigration, gun control, or healthcare.
When asking about support for political parties, pollsters use both even and odd scales. Often, they’ll use an odd scale to capture how many people identify as independents, then switch to an even-numbered scale to see which way those people lean when forced to choose.
Health behaviors
Healthcare professionals can give more relevant advice when they understand someone’s lifestyle. A Likert scale could measure the frequency and consistency of behaviors like exercise, healthy eating, and stress management. With the results, healthcare providers and organizations can design more effective interventions.
Psychological well-being
Many psychological tests rely on Likert scales. The surveys psychiatrists use to assess conditions like depression or anxiety often consist of Likert scale questions about patients’ daily lives and symptoms.
Mental health professionals use these scales to make recommendations. They also let patients see the results of treatment over time.
Best practices for creating Likert scale surveys
To get useful results, follow these best practices:
Determine what you’re measuring
This may seem obvious, but unfocused surveys are a common problem. A survey should provide information on a specific topic, so every question should be relevant to it.
Set the right number of options
4- or 5-point scales are most common, but your use case might require finer-grained results. Be careful, though—adding more options can reduce precision, because respondents may choose more randomly between adjacent options near their actual opinion.
Write clear and concise questions
Any ambiguity lets respondents read a question differently. If that happens, you’ll collect data on different interpretations rather than the one you wanted.
the questionnaire
Try your survey with a limited number of participants before running it at scale. This helps you spot questions that are unclear or carry unintentional bias.
What to do with your Likert scale results
Once you have the results, the next steps depend on your goals.
For simple, single-question surveys like NPS, you might record the results and use them to track the success of your improvement efforts—or break them down by customer segment for finer-grained information.
For all Likert scale questions, you can use statistical methods to analyze the data and:
- Calculate the mean, median, and mode of the results
- Create a frequency histogram to visualize them easily
- Use inferential statistics to test your hypotheses
Remember that Likert scale results are ordinal data—the distances between data points have no real meaning. Choose a statistical analysis method compatible with ordinal data when analyzing your results.
Likert scales are valuable across many industries, helping you gather clear-cut data from subjective situations. Try these best practices to see how they improve the results you gather.
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