Masking answers

A mask chains the answer options of one question to the respondent’s answer in a previous question.

Example
The first question asks participants which laundry detergents they have used, and the follow-up question asks which laundry detergent they have used in the last three months. In the list of answer options for the follow-up question, you only want to include the selections from the first question. For the first question, the participant selects Tide, ABC, and Sunlight. For the follow-up questions, the list of answer options only includes Tide, ABC, and Sunlight.

Example

The first question asks participants which laundry detergents they have used, and the follow-up question asks which laundry detergent they have used in the last three months. In the list of answer options for the follow-up question, you only want to include the selections from the first question.

For the first question, the participant selects Tide, ABC, and Sunlight.

For the follow-up questions, the list of answer options only includes Tide, ABC, and Sunlight.

Example
The first question asks participants to select their favorite car brand, and the second question asks them to select their second favorite. In the list of answer options for the second question, you want to hide the answer to the first question. For the first question, the participant selects Toyota. In the second question, Toyota is hidden from the list of answer options.

Masking limitation

A question can only be linked to one other question.

When you exclude answers in a mask and chain more than two questions together, the mask only applies to the most recent question.

Example
The survey contains three questions that ask participants to select their first, second, and third favorite car brands. You would like each question to hide the answer option that was selected in the previous question, so you chain the three questions together. For the first question, the participant selects Toyota. For the second question, Toyota is hidden from the list of answer options, and the participant selects Honda. In the third question, Honda is hidden, but Toyota has reappeared. The third question is linked to the second question (when Honda was selected), but the link to the first question (when Toyota was selected) is broken.

Example

The survey contains three questions that ask participants to select their first, second, and third favorite car brands. You would like each question to hide the answer option that was selected in the previous question, so you chain the three questions together.

For the first question, the participant selects Toyota.

For the second question, Toyota is hidden from the list of answer options, and the participant selects Honda.

In the third question, Honda is hidden, but Toyota has reappeared. The third question is linked to the second question (when Honda was selected), but the link to the first question (when Toyota was selected) is broken.

Masking availability

You can create masks for the following question types:

Single Choice
Multi Choice
Single Choice Grid
Multi Choice Grid
Allocation Grid

Note:

Visual questions do not support masking. For scripting options, speak to your Account Representative.
If masking is not available for a question type, you cannot add a mask to it. However, you can use answers from that question type to create a mask in other question types.