How to give a "Don't Know" option? | XM Community
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How to give a "Don't Know" option?

  • 11 November 2017
  • 4 replies
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Userlevel 4
  • Qualtrics Employee
  • 24 replies
I have a text entry question but want to give the respondents the option to select "Don't Know" instead of filling it out. I don't see a way to do this in the question options at all - any suggestions?
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Best answer by AnthonyR 16 November 2017, 18:04

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4 replies

Userlevel 5
Badge +10
Stop! Don't do it Poppy! Qualtrics advises against including a "Don't Know" option and has a great article as reference.

https://qualtrics.com/blog/why-including-dont-know-responses-is-hurting-your-survey-data/
Userlevel 4
@JulieT Thanks, Julie! That is great advice, however, my supervisor is pretty adamant that they still want to add a "Don't Know" option. Does anyone know how to do this?
Userlevel 7
Badge +7
The best way to set this up is to create a multiple choice question with 2 answers, the first will include a text entry, and the second will be Don't know.

Then you can add the following JavaScript to hide the first label, while keeping its text entry box:

Qualtrics.SurveyEngine.addOnReady(function () {
function hideLabel(element) {
if (element.select('input')[0] != null || element.select('textarea')[0] != null) {
element.select('label').each(function (a, b) {
a.hide();
});
} else {
console.log(element);
}
}
var hideLabelsFlag = false

function hideLabels() { //QH.hideLabels() - Hides the label for any answer option where a text input has been added.
var elements = $$('.LabelWrapper');
elements.each(function (name, index) {
hideLabel(name);
});
hideLabelsFlag = true;
}
hideLabels();
});
Userlevel 5
Badge +10
@Poppy, this solution isn't pretty, but it's functional. Create a 2-option Multiple Choice question and have one of them allow text entry.

!

I'm not sure how much space a text entry field will allow, but it might work??

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