Survey question text displaying incorrect words for some respondents | Experience Community
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Question

Survey question text displaying incorrect words for some respondents

  • June 3, 2026
  • 4 replies
  • 44 views
S
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Hi everyone,

I'm experiencing a strange issue where some respondents reported that certain words in survey questions are being displayed incorrectly.

What's happening:

  • "世帯年収 (household income)" is displayed as "インタビュー (interview)"
  • "点数 (score)" is displayed as "金額 (amount of money)"
  • About 4 out of 1,200 respondents reported this issue
  • It is possible that the cause is having entered the question text in Japanese while leaving the survey language setting in English.

What I've already checked:

  • Cannot reproduce the issue on our end using the same answer selections
  • The issue does NOT occur in incognito/private browsing mode
  • No piped text or embedded data that could explain this behavior
  • No multi-language settings configured

Since the issue disappears in incognito mode, I suspect a browser extension might be causing this. However, the affected respondents are from different organizations, so it seems unlikely they all have the same extension installed.
 

Has anyone experienced something similar? Any ideas on what might be causing this?

Thanks in advance!

4 replies

SaurabhPujare_Ugam
QPN Level 5 ●●●●●
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Hi ​@Survay22,

 

I was wondering which distribution method you have used here? Because if it is email, there may be issue with version of the survey they have seen, e.g., they may be not seeing the latest published version and may have started the survey before any translation changes are being published.

 

Just a hypothetical scenario I’m envisioning, but more details on this can help to troubleshoot further. 

Best, Saurabh
    J
    Level 4 ●●●●
    • jbk
    • Level 4 ●●●●
    • June 4, 2026

    It could also be in translation. Check the question in both formats. eng & Japanese

      S
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      • Survay22
      • Author
      • June 4, 2026

      Hi, ​@SaurabhPujare_Ugam ,
       

      thanks for the input!

      We used email distribution, but we don't think versioning is the issue because:

      • The survey link doesn't change after republishing
      • The issue doesn’t occur in incognito mode

      I also initially suspected a translation-related cause, but the survey was written entirely in Japanese and the word substitutions were also in Japanese. Only survey setting language is English, but I'm not sure how a translation issue could explain this.

      Any other ideas on what might be causing this?

      Best,
       

      J
      Level 2 ●●
      Forum|alt.badge.img+5

      When working with translations, it’s not enough to simply download the language pack; you need to manually translate each question to ensure it displays correctly. It’s also important to review the translations to confirm they are accurate.

      When multiple languages are included in a survey, it will default to the language set on the respondent’s device, which may affect how translations are displayed. However, when accessing the survey in incognito mode, it will appear exactly as configured in Qualtrics, without being influenced by the browser’s language settings.

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