Do these 3 things before closing this tab:
1Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems2Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches3Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsIf you can’t answer a question honestly, don’t guess just to get through it. Use a clearly offered “I don’t know” or “Not sure” option, skip the question if that is allowed, or explain that you can’t provide the information. For anyone designing a form or interview, make that route easy to find and consider a polite follow-up only when it can clarify the answer without pressuring the respondent.
What should you do when you can’t answer?
Choose the option that best describes your situation. “I don’t know” means you lack the information; “not applicable” means the question does not fit you; and “prefer not to say” means you are declining to disclose something you may know. If the form offers none of these and allows you to continue, leave the answer blank rather than inventing one. If the field is required, contact the organization or use its help channel to ask how to proceed.
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These distinctions matter because an empty answer does not tell the person reviewing a form why it is empty. A respondent may not know, may be unwilling to disclose, or may find the question irrelevant. A form that treats all three cases as the same can make the resulting information harder to interpret.
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How can a form or survey handle “I don’t know”?
There is no single best approach for every question or audience. Survey-methodology research describes several options, each with a different trade-off:
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| Approach | What it enables | What to consider |
|---|---|---|
| Allow a blank or skip | Respondents can move on without choosing an answer they cannot support. | A blank does not reveal whether the person lacked knowledge, declined to answer, or overlooked the item. |
| Offer a separate “I don’t know” choice | Respondents can report uncertainty directly instead of guessing or leaving the item blank. | Keep it visually distinct from substantive answers, and do not treat it as interchangeable with “not applicable” or “prefer not to say.” |
| Use a polite follow-up after a skip | An interactive survey can ask whether the respondent would like to answer after all. | Make it easy to decline again; a follow-up should clarify, not coerce. |
In a 2016 study, Edith D. de Leeuw, Joop Hox, and Anja J. Boevé reported that allowing respondents to skip questions and then using a polite probe when they skipped produced the lowest amount of missing information among the approaches they examined. That is a finding from their study, not a guarantee that the same design will work best for every form, topic, or population. Read the article record and abstract.
Why “I don’t know” does not always mean the same thing
A person may genuinely lack the required information. But survey answers can also reflect the effort a question demands: recalling details, weighing alternatives, or reasoning through a complicated issue. John Krosnick’s 1991 account of satisficing describes “I don’t know” and random selection among offered answers as possible strategies when giving an optimal answer takes substantial effort. That means a “don’t know” response should not automatically be interpreted as proof of ignorance—or dismissed as carelessness. See Krosnick’s article record.
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Question form and respondent experience can matter too. In a split-ballot telephone survey experiment involving 398 respondents, Leigh and Martin reported that question form and content, as well as respondent experience or involvement, affected “don’t know” item nonresponse. Because that result came from a particular telephone-survey experiment, it should not be treated as a universal rule for all forms or settings. See the study record.
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In a study of 6- and 8-year-old children, Waterman and Blades found that instructions given before the interview increased younger children’s appropriate “don’t know” responses to unanswerable questions without reducing their correct answers to answerable questions. They also found that giving children an opportunity to provide a narrative account increased appropriate “don’t know” responses to unanswerable yes-or-no questions. See the study abstract indexed by PubMed.
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These findings concern the children and interview tasks studied; they do not establish that the same techniques will work for adult forms or every interview. They do illustrate why it helps to tell respondents explicitly that saying they do not know is acceptable, rather than leaving them to infer that every question must receive a substantive answer.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How should a designer choose an approach?
Start with what the question asks and what an unanswered response needs to communicate. A question requiring a specific memory may call for a clear uncertainty option; a sensitive question may need a distinct “prefer not to say”; and an item that cannot apply to everyone may need “not applicable.” If a respondent can safely continue without answering, skipping may be enough. If a follow-up is used, it should preserve a genuine choice.
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- Make it possible to continue without guessing when a respondent cannot know the answer.
- Separate lack of knowledge from a question that does not apply and from a decision not to disclose.
- Consider whether the question demands substantial recall or reasoning, which can affect how people respond.
- Use follow-up prompts only when they can clarify a skipped answer without making refusal difficult.
A 1988 review of “don’t know” responses in surveys discusses implications for survey design, analysis, and interpretation, underscoring that the meaning of these answers can vary by topic. See the article record.
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