DO YOU THINK ABOUT?
There are two kinds of people in this world: people who look at apartment listing photos first, and people who look at floorplans first. I’m floorplan people all the way. I need to know the frame, the scope of the place. Then I can plop photos into that floorplan.
Since I’m looking at NYC apartments, I have a criterion when I click a floorplan. I skip no-foreplay apartments, by which I mean, you open the door and that’s it, you’re in. No notion of a foyer. The apartment door is parallel with a perimeter wall. Those are not for me.
Reporters lean on a no-foreplay question when they talk to The People: the people at a rally, the people on the street: “What do you think about xyz?” I wish the first question were, “Do you think about xyz?” Not what but whether.
We’re verbally obedient. If someone asks what I think about xyz, I’m primed to deliver an answer by that flattering assumption that I’ve thought about xyz. Asking, “Do you think about/Have you sincerely given a lot of thought to xyz?” could weed out the expressive responding tendencies to take the bait and state one of two extreme positions.
Surveys would be improved by any of the following templated responses:
“Sorry I don’t know enough about this subject.”
“Boh; I don’t care/give a shit.”
“This is too important to ask me.”
“I defer to people who have devoted their lives to thinking this through.”