Análise de Questionários apoiada por Lógica Paraconsistente

Resumo (EN)

Opinion polls, consumer evaluation surveys and personnel evaluation questionnaires are a well established part of present-day life. On one hand, they are cheap to conduct, and are the most widely known and accepted way to measure all kinds of otherwise intangible things as preference, satisfaction and happiness. On the other hand, it is well established that the wording of the questions, the order in which they are asked and the number and form of alternative answers offered can influence results of such surveys, so much that, on some issues, question wording can result in quite pronounced differences between surveys. This problem has been recognized almost from the time the questionnaire was invented by Sir Francis Galton (in the middle of the 19th century), and numerous processes and techniques have been developed since then, always aiming at achieving more reproductible results and eliminating all kinds of biases. ln the present communication we envision a novel survey instrument, designed to be analyzed by means of annotated paraconsistent logic techniques, which allows for both the detection of contradictions and inconsistencies on the part of the respondent, as well as for the continuous improvement of the adequacy of the instrument in itself. We also present, as a proof­of-concept, the application of the said methodology to two car dealer customer satisfaction evaluation surveys, and an in-depth analysis of the results it has yielded.