What the Heck is a Likert Scale?

I am confident I know what a Likert scale is.

• 5 = Strongly Agree
• 4 = Agree
• 3 = Neutral
• 2 = Disagree
• 1 = Strongly Disagree

Chances are you’ve encountered a question like the one above countless times over the years. This is what is called a Likert scale, named after its inventor Rensis Likert; an American psychologist who first used the scale in 1932. Since then, countless variations of this type of scale have been used on surveys and questionnaires around the world.

According to Wikipedia, a Likert scale is “a psychometric scale commonly involved in research that employs questionnaires… When responding to a Likert item, respondents specify their level of agreement or disagreement on a symmetric agree-disagree scale for a series of statements. Thus, the range captures the intensity of their feelings for a given item.”

The five-point scale shown above is the most common form of a Likert scale, but there are others. Some surveys have four-point scales that leave out the “Neutral” option — these are referred to as “forced-choice” questions because they don’t give the respondent the option to remain neutral. Some surveys include more options, some less.

We know these scales are used widely, but are they used correctly?

The answer, unfortunately, is that it is very common for people using items like this to report results in a way…