5-point vs 7-point Likert scale: Choosing the Best | QuestionPro (2024)

5-point vs 7-point Likert scale: Choosing the Best | QuestionPro (1)

Likert scales are commonly used in surveys and questionnaires to measure attitudes, opinions, and perceptions. The 5-point vs 7-point Likert scale argument is one of many choices researchers face when designing surveys.

Each scale offers unique characteristics that influence respondent burden and data quality, making the decision of which to use crucial for obtaining accurate insights.

Deciding whether to use a 5-point vs 7-point Likert scale depends on several factors, including the level of detail required for measurement, the complexity of the topic being explored, and the preferences of the researcher or organization conducting the survey.

In this blog, we will examine the differences between a 5-point vs 7-point Likert scale, examining their respective advantages, disadvantages, and suitability for different survey contexts.

Content Index hide

1What is the Likert Scale?

25-Point Likert Scale

4Advantages of 5-Point vs 7-Point Likert Scale

55-Point vs 7-Point Likert Scale: Which One is to Use?

6Alternative Survey Rating Scales

7How to Create Effective Likert Scale Survey Questions?

8Use the Likert Scales in Your Survey with QuestionPro!

What is the Likert Scale?

A Likert scale is a tool researchers use to gather people’s opinions and attitudes. It’s a psychometric scale commonly involved in understanding the views on a brand, product, or target market. It delivers more data points to run statistical information. It’s important to have this in mind when comparing a 5-point vs 7-point Likert scale.

Different types of scales, like the Guttman, Bogardus, and Thurstone scales, focus on measuring opinions. Psychologist Rensis Likert made a clear difference between a scale based on a set of responses to several items, where responses are rated on a range of values.

For example, you can collect specific feedback on a product using a Likert Scale question. Instead of asking, “Was the product a good purchase?” with options to agree or disagree, you can ask your customer, “How satisfied are you with the product?” with options ranging from extremely dissatisfied to extremely satisfied.

The Likert Scale is commonly used by researchers to collect opinions on customer satisfaction or employee experience. This scale can be categorized into two main types:

  • Even Likert Scale: Researchers collect significant feedback without a neutral response using even Likert Scale. Ex. 4-Point Likert Scale vs 8-Point Likert Scale.
  • Odd Likert Scale: The odd Likert scale lets researchers ask respondents to respond or react with a neutral option. Ex. 5-Point vs 7-Point Likert Scale.

5-Point Likert Scale

A 5-point Likert scale is a commonly used psychometric scale that measures respondents’ attitudes or opinions on a symmetric agree-disagree scale.

It typically ranges from 1 to 5, with 1 representing “Strongly Disagree,” 2 representing “Disagree,” 3 representing “Neutral” or “Neither Agree nor Disagree,” 4 representing “Agree,” and 5 representing “Strongly Agree.”

This scale provides a simple and efficient way to gather data on people’s attitudes or perceptions towards a particular topic.

For instance, when designing a survey to evaluate a product, consider incorporating questions like:

  • How satisfied are you with the overall performance of this product?
  • How satisfied are you with the after-sales support for this product?

Using a 5-point scale from “Extremely Satisfied” to “Extremely Dissatisfied,” people can share their feelings in detail. This helps gather a wide range of feedback without making the survey too complex.

Using this scale makes it easier to understand responses and draw useful conclusions from the data. Also, participants can express their opinions clearly and simply, improving the survey experience and improving the feedback quality.

7-Point Likert Scale

The 7-point Likert scale is commonly employed in surveys and questionnaires to measure how people feel or think about a particular topic. The reason behind increasing the scale points is to cover the diversity of customers’ mindsets, as everybody has different responses and feelings.

It ranges from 1 to 7, where 1 indicates strong disagreement or being very unlikely, and 7 indicates strong agreement or being very likely. The midpoint, labeled as 4, typically signifies a neutral opinion or neutral-leaning stance. This scale provides more options for responses compared to the standard 5-point Likert scale.

On a 7-point scale, 3 means somewhat agree, and 5 means somewhat disagree, allowing participants to offer more detailed and nuanced feedback.

When evaluating a new product’s quality, price, and accessibility, the 7-point Likert scale allows for more detailed feedback. It provides respondents with a wider range of options, enabling them to express subtle differences in their thoughts and experiences. This detailed input is valuable for evaluating and enhancing the product.

However, it’s important to recognize some drawbacks of the 7-point scale. The increased options might cause survey fatigue, as respondents may find it time-consuming and mentally taxing to navigate through multiple choices. Additionally, some participants may feel overwhelmed by the abundance of options, potentially leading them to skip the questionnaire altogether.

Despite these challenges, the 7-point Likert scale presents an opportunity to gather nuanced feedback and comprehensively understand respondent attitudes toward the new product. By carefully considering the scale’s benefits and limitations, researchers can design surveys that maximize data quality while minimizing the burden on respondents.

Advantages of 5-Point vs 7-Point Likert Scale

The 5-point vs 7-point Likert scales are commonly chosen in surveys due to their simplicity, comprehensiveness, and effectiveness. These scales have shared features that make them useful in research surveys:

  • The 5-point and 7-point Likert scales offer many alternatives, including a neutral midpoint.
  • Both scales allow respondents to express their thoughts clearly, helping them understand their choices.
  • Likert scale surveys promote honesty and transparency. It encourages honest feedback and improves data quality.
  • Likert scales produce structured, quantitative data, allowing researchers to gain actionable insights and make informed judgments.

By using Likert scales, especially the 5-point and 7-point types, organizations can tap into the combined insights of their stakeholders. This helps improve and fine-tune the new product, making it more appealing in the market and increasing customer satisfaction.

5-Point vs 7-Point Likert Scale: Which One is to Use?

When deciding between a 5-point vs 7-point Likert scale, it’s important to think about your participants and research objectives. Each scale has its own benefits and factors to consider, which can affect how well your survey is designed.

When conducting surveys for a wide audience, especially when it’s important to keep things simple and clear, you might find the 5-point Likert scale to be a good choice:

  • The simple method makes it easy for people to share their feelings quickly.
  • The uncomplicated scale is easy for both researchers and participants to understand and use.
  • Even though it’s short, the 5-point scale offers different choices, ensuring important insights are gathered.

However, if your research goals demand more detailed and precise feedback, the 7-point Likert scale can be a better choice:

  • The 7-point scale provides more choices for answers, helping to better understand what people think in a detailed way.
  • This extra detail is useful for research that aims to delve into complicated ideas or collect very specific opinions about products or services.
  • Yet, thinking about possible downsides is crucial, like making it harder for people to answer or making data analysis more complex.

When analyzing the results, it’s important to consider the pros and cons of each scale. The seven-point Likert items can give more detailed insights, but it might take more time to analyze, especially in big surveys or when there’s limited time. On the other hand, the 5-point scale is a simpler option that can be more efficient for capturing general sentiments.

Alternative Survey Rating Scales

When conducting a survey, you can use different scales instead of just the Likert scale to get different kinds of feedback. Here are some other survey rating scales that researchers often use:

2-point Survey Scale

  • Also known as a dichotomous or binary scale, this scale presents respondents with two absolute options: yes and no, true and false, or agree and disagree.
  • Example: “Are you satisfied with the product?” (Options: Yes / No)

3-point Survey Scale

  • The 3-point scale offers respondents a middle ground in addition to two extreme opinions, providing a neutral option.
  • Example: “How satisfied are you with our onboarding?” (Options: Unhappy / Neutral / Happy)

10-point Survey Scale

  • Providing a broader range of options, the 10-point scale allows for more nuanced responses and clearer indications of sentiment.
  • Example: “How likely are you to continue with the platform in the next year?” (Options: 1 to 10, with 1 being “Very Unlikely” and 10 being “Very Likely”)

11-point Survey Scale (NPS)

  • Utilizing a scale ranging from 0 to 10, the 11-point NPS scale measures customer loyalty towards a brand.
    • Promoters: Choose 9 or 10
    • Passives: Choose 7 or 8
    • Detractors: Choose 0 to 6.
  • Example: “How likely are you to recommend our product/service to a friend or colleague?” (Options: 0 to 10)

How to Create Effective Likert Scale Survey Questions?

When creating Likert scale survey questions, it’s crucial to be clear and pay close attention to details. Here is how you can write these questions effectively.

  • Be Specific

Make sure to clearly state the subject or context of your question so that respondents have the information they need. For instance, rather than asking a general question like “How satisfied are you with the product?” be more specific by mentioning the product in question, like “How satisfied are you with the performance of Product A?

  • Label all the Options Properly

Make sure to label all the response options in the Likert scale so that people can easily understand their different choices. Instead of just labeling the ends (like “Strongly Disagree” and “Strongly Agree”), provide titles for all options to ensure a thorough understanding.

  • Be Careful with Sequence

Make sure the response choices in your survey’s Likert scale questions follow a consistent order. If you’re using horizontal rating scales, organize the options from negative to positive, placing the negative response attributes on the left and the positive attributes on the right. Keeping this order consistent will avoid confusion and help respondents clearly understand the questions.

  • Ensure Consistency

Make sure that the order of response choices in Likert scale questions remains the same throughout the survey. Whether organizing options from negative to positive or the other way around, keep the sequence consistent to improve clarity and reduce confusion for respondents.

Use the Likert Scales in Your Survey with QuestionPro!

Now that we have covered the 5-point vs 7-point Likert scale, let’s talk about how the Likert scale survey effectively gathers feedback and valuable information, making it easy to comprehend and respond to. It plays a crucial role in assessing opinions or attitudes on a specific topic, providing valuable insights for the next stages of an investigation.

Using QuestionPro, organizations can easily conduct online surveys utilizing the Likert Scale. Simply create a free account to begin exploring and testing this type of question.

For additional information about this and other features on our platform, feel free to reach out to our online chat. Share details about your project, and we’ll be happy to recommend the research tools that best fit your needs.

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5-point vs 7-point Likert scale: Choosing the Best | QuestionPro (2024)

FAQs

5-point vs 7-point Likert scale: Choosing the Best | QuestionPro? ›

However, if your research goals demand more detailed and precise feedback, the 7-point Likert scale can be a better choice: The 7-point scale provides more choices for answers, helping to better understand what people think in a detailed way.

Is a 5 or 7 point Likert scale better? ›

Interpolations provide evidence that 5-point Likert scales may not be sensitive enough to record a usability test participant's true evaluation of a system. Seven-point Likert scales appear to be sensitive enough to record a more accurate evaluation of an interface while remaining relatively compact.

What happens if 7 point Likert scale is used instead of 5-point Likert scale? ›

Although the 7-point scale is slightly more accurate than the 5-point, it's not by much (and according to MeasuringU founder Jeff Saur, the author of over 15 peer-reviewed research articles and several books on statistics and the user experience: “the 7-point scale only realizes benefits if you have fewer response ...

What is the 7 point Likert scale for quality? ›

A 7 point Likert scale example for an agreement will include options such as; strongly disagree, disagree, somewhat disagree, either agree or disagree, somewhat agree, and agree while 7 point Likert examples for frequency and satisfaction follow the same manner.

Why use a 7 point scale? ›

A 7-point Likert scale is used because it offers a balanced range of response options, capturing a broader spectrum of attitudes, opinions, and behaviors.

Which Likert scale is best? ›

Most researchers agree that, at a minimum, you should use a five-point Likert scale survey. But other research shows that the more choices there are, the less often respondents use the middle or neutral category.

What is the best number of points on a Likert scale? ›

A Likert scale is a rating scale used to measure survey participants' opinions, attitudes, motivations, and more. It uses a range of answer options ranging from one extreme attitude to another, sometimes including a moderate or neutral option. However, 4- to 7-point scales are the most popular..

How do you convert a 7 point Likert scale to a 5-point scale? ›

If you just want to convert the scale scored 1-7 into one scored 1-5, while retaining all the original information in the 7-point scale, you coud recode as follows: 1 --> 1.0, 2 --> 1.667, 3 --> 2.333, 4 --> 3.0, 5 --> 3.667, 6 --> 4.333, 7 --> 5.0.

What is the main disadvantage of using Likert scale? ›

What are the limitations of the Likert Scale? Forced responses – while respondents are given different options, they will be forced to commit to one they didn't want to if their preferred response is not listed.

Why do researchers use 5-point Likert scale? ›

The evidence seems to indicate that five-point Likert scales ensure respondents won't lose interest. Analyzing the different answer choices will also be easier for respondents, eliminating the urge to select middle options or leave items in blank.

Is a 7 point Likert scale continuous? ›

you can also treat it as an interval scale. however, the scale is ordinal, the variable can be assumed or treated as continuous. also if you have 5 items (1 to 5) or seven, it can change how you look at it. a 5-item Likert is ordinal but a 7-item is continuous.

How to interpret a 5 point Likert scale? ›

The qualitative interpretation of 5-point Likert scale measurements employed in this study adapts the categorization proposed by Nyutu (2021) , wherein responses falling within the range of 1.00-1.80 are interpreted as "Not difficult at all," those between 1.81 and 2.60 are considered "Slightly difficult," those ...

Is a 6 point Likert scale good? ›

A strong benefit of the six-point agreement scale is that an even number of responses yields evenly categorized results, making it easy to understand and discuss results. By default, Quantum Workplace categorizes survey responses as: Unfavorable: the combination of responses that are Strongly Disagree and Disagree.

Should I use a 5 point or 7-point Likert scale? ›

The seven-point Likert items can give more detailed insights, but it might take more time to analyze, especially in big surveys or when there's limited time. On the other hand, the 5-point scale is a simpler option that can be more efficient for capturing general sentiments.

What does a 7-point grading scale look like? ›

The seven point scale uses 7 percentages between each letter grade. Occasionally, if it is 0.5 below the actual number (–0.5 shown below) then it will round up. The possible grades are A, B, C, D, F, and I, which stands for incomplete.

What is the 5 point scale used for? ›

The 5-point scale helps individuals with difficulty learn how to manage it in an appropriate way. Flexibility. This one scale of 5 levels can be used for a wide variety of emotional management, voice levels, anxiety and even understanding other's behavior and social awareness.

What is the difference between 1-5 and 1-7 scale? ›

A scale of 1-4 does not allow the participant to give a neutral answer. This may be desirable in some studies but not in others. 1-5 allows that neutral answer. A 1-7 scale gives TWO levels between "disagree strongly" and neutral (or whatever the values are labeled).

How do you convert a 7-point Likert scale to a 5 point scale? ›

If you just want to convert the scale scored 1-7 into one scored 1-5, while retaining all the original information in the 7-point scale, you coud recode as follows: 1 --> 1.0, 2 --> 1.667, 3 --> 2.333, 4 --> 3.0, 5 --> 3.667, 6 --> 4.333, 7 --> 5.0.

What is the 7 rating scale? ›

This 7-point rating scale measures customer satisfaction levels. These scales allow respondents to rate their satisfaction with a product or service on a scale, typically ranging from 1 to 7, where 1 represents the lowest level of satisfaction and 7 represents the highest level.

What is a good score on a 5 point Likert scale? ›

The Likert 5-point scale was employed to evaluate the variables, reflecting the extent of performance from low to high. This scale has five ranges: 1-1.80 for strongly disagree, 1.81-2.60 for disagree, 2.61-3.40 for neutral, 3.41-4.20 for agree, and 4.21-5 for strongly agree [26] .

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