Distribute questions ask respondents to allocate numeric values, like percentage points or dollar amounts, to a list of presented items.

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Building Distribute Questions

1. In the Survey Editor, click the Distribute icon in the question menu, or drag the icon into place.
2. Type or paste your question into the Question field.
3. Type entities for respondents to evaluate into the Item fields and click the + icon to add additional options (up to 10). Use copy/paste to automatically populate answer options.
4. Hover over a number and click the X to delete an Item Option.
5. Check the Randomize checkbox to shuffle the item order for each respondent.
6. Click the anchor icon to the right of an entity to lock the option in place on the list, despite randomization.

Customizing Sums and Increments

1. Enter the number for the upper limit for each slider in the Sum/Units field. This should include a number but may also include symbols to denote monetary units, percentages, etc.
2. Click the Steps dropdown to adjust the number of steps or increments available on each slider.

⚠️ Note: The maximum number of steps on the slider is 100.

You can designate whether respondents can select an unlimited amount of units, or if the numeric value of all items must equal a specific sum.

Using Constant Sum

1. Choose Constant Sum from the dropdown to set a maximum overall total that can be allocated to the items.
2. Enter the maximum numerical value into the Sum/Units text field, then select the number of steps or increments respondents will be able to allocate to each item.

For example, use Constant Sum to distribute percentages among items up to 100%, or allocate dollar amounts within a given budget. As respondents assign values to each item, the remaining amount reduces accordingly.

Using Continuous Sum

1. Choose Continuous Sum to allow respondents to select up to a specified amount per item, as opposed to a sum total allocated among all items.
2. Click the Show Sum checkbox to display the running total for all items to the respondent.
3. Enter the Sum/Units allowed per item into the text field.
4. Click the dropdown to select the number of steps or increments respondents will be able to allocate to each item.

Use Continuous Sum to allow respondents to indicate they would buy up to a certain amount of each product, but an unlimited number of total products.

Analyzing Distribute Questions

1. On the Results page, hover over the Summary bar chart to see details for each Sub-Question.
2. Click the chart icon in the upper right corner of the question results to toggle to a horizontal chart.
3. View a line-by-line summary distribution for each Sub-Question.
4. Click on a Sub-Question header to view a different breakdown for that particular question.

Take a test drive on real-world results for this question type! Explore a live demo report.