A Likert scale is a psychometric scale used to measure opinions, attitudes, or behaviors. It is named after its inventor, American social psychologist Rensis Likert. A Likert scale question consists of a statement or a question, followed by a series of answer options that allow respondents to indicate their positive-to-negative strength of agreement or strength of feeling regarding the question or statement. The answer options are usually five or seven-point scales that range from one extreme attitude to another, with a moderate or neutral option in the middle. Respondents choose the option that best represents their opinion or attitude towards the statement or question.
Likert scales are most useful when measuring unobservable individual characteristics or characteristics that have no concrete, objective measurement, such as attitudes, feelings, or opinions that cause variations in behavior. Researchers use Likert scale questions when they are seeking a greater degree of nuance than possible from a simple “yes or no” question. The Likert scale is a standard classification format for studies, and researchers use surveys regularly to measure and analyze the quality of products or services.
Benefits of using Likert scale questions include that they are easy to understand, adaptable, and can be collated numerically and filtered based on responses. They are also one of the most reliable ways to measure opinions, perceptions, and behaviors. To write strong Likert scale questions, it is important to ensure that items are easily related to the sentence’s answers, regardless of whether the relationship between item and sentence is evident.
