Screening and Disqualification: What a Respondent Sees¶

A survey built for a specific audience - existing customers, people in a certain age range, users of a particular product - needs a way to handle someone who starts the survey but doesn't actually fit that audience. That's what Screen-out / Terminate Logic is for: routing a disqualified respondent out of the survey cleanly, rather than letting them answer questions that were never meant for them.

How Disqualification Works¶

Screen-out logic evaluates a respondent's answers against conditions you've set - similar in spirit to Display Logic, but instead of showing or hiding a question, it ends the respondent's participation in the survey when a disqualifying condition is met. A common pattern is a screening question early in the survey (age, whether they've used a specific product, employment status) with a screen-out condition attached to the answers that make someone ineligible.

What a Screened-Out Respondent Sees¶

A respondent who triggers a screen-out condition is routed to a termination message rather than continuing into the rest of the survey - they don't see remaining questions that wouldn't apply to them, and they aren't left wondering whether something went wrong. It's a clean, deliberate end to their participation rather than an error.

Setting Up Screening Questions Well¶

Screening questions work best early in the survey, before a respondent invests time answering questions that turn out not to matter if they're disqualified. Putting your key eligibility questions first respects a screened-out respondent's time and keeps your data clean by design rather than requiring you to filter out ineligible responses after the fact.

Screening and Panel Recruitment¶

If you're using Panel Recruitment (see Introduction to Panel Recruitment), screen-out logic works alongside the panel's own screening criteria - your survey's own screen-out questions handle disqualification based on your specific survey logic, in addition to whatever audience filters you set when defining the wave itself.

FAQ¶

Does a screened-out response still count toward my response total?
Check your Survey Management page for how screened-out responses are counted separately from completed ones - this distinction matters for accurately reading your completion and response rates.

Can I customize the message a screened-out respondent sees?
Check your survey's screen-out settings for available customization of the termination message.

Is screen-out logic the same as Display Logic?
They're related but distinct - Display Logic shows or hides specific questions based on prior answers, while screen-out logic ends the respondent's participation in the survey entirely. See Display Logic: Showing or Hiding Questions Based on Answers for the difference.

If I'm using Panel Recruitment, does a screened-out respondent get charged differently?
Yes - screened-out submissions are charged at a smaller, fixed rate rather than the full per-response reward. See Introduction to Panel Recruitment for the pricing picture.

For the related mechanism that shows or hides questions without ending participation, see Display Logic: Showing or Hiding Questions Based on Answers.