Q01
Message
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U.S. Political Knowledge and Civics Literacy Survey
Tests how well U.S. adults understand basic civics and current government structure — branches of government, terms of office, and the courts — then uses an AI follow-up to explore where knowledge gaps come from and how confidently people navigate political information. Useful for researchers, educators, and civic organizations tracking public understanding of government.
Sample questions
A preview of what’s in the template. Every question is editable before you launch.
14 questions · ~7 min
Q02
Multiple ChoiceRequired
How many years is a full term for a U.S. Senator?
- 2 years
- 4 years
- 6 years
- 8 years
Q03
Multiple ChoiceRequired
Which branch of the U.S. federal government has the constitutional power to declare war?
- The Executive branch (President)
- The Legislative branch (Congress)
- The Judicial branch (Courts)
- None of these
Q04
Multiple ChoiceRequired
How many justices currently sit on the U.S. Supreme Court?
- 7
- 9
- 11
- 13
Q05
Multiple ChoiceRequired
What is the minimum age required by the Constitution to serve as U.S. President?
- 30
- 35
- 40
- 45
Q06
Multiple ChoiceRequired
Which of the following is NOT one of the three branches of the U.S. federal government?
- Executive
- Legislative
- Judicial
- Regulatory
Q07
Opinion ScaleRequired
How confident are you in your overall understanding of how the U.S. government works?
Scale: 1 – 7
Min:Not confident at allMax:Extremely confident
Q08
Multiple ChoiceRequired
In the last 30 days, how often did you actively look up or read about a specific piece of political news (beyond just seeing a headline)?
- Never
- Once or twice
- Weekly
- Almost daily
Q09
Ranking
Rank these sources by how much you rely on them to understand what's happening in government and politics.
- National news broadcasts or websites
- Local news
- Social media
- Friends, family, or coworkers
- Government or official sources directly
Drag to rank
Q10
AI Interview
Ask the respondent to walk through their reasoning on whichever factual question they seemed least sure about, and probe where their understanding of that topic came from (school, news, a specific event). If they got questions wrong, explore whether it reflects a genuine misconception or just not knowing, and what would help clarify it. If they scored high but reported low confidence, dig into why the mismatch exists.
Q11
Multiple Choice
What is your age range?
- 18-24
- 25-34
- 35-44
- 45-54
- 55-64
- 65+
- Prefer not to say
Q12
Multiple Choice
What is the highest level of education you have completed?
- High school or less
- Some college
- Associate degree
- Bachelor's degree
- Graduate degree
- Prefer not to say
Q13
Multiple Choice
How would you describe your general political leaning?
- Left-leaning
- Center
- Right-leaning
- Not sure / no consistent leaning
- Prefer not to say
Q14
Message
That's everything — thank you for your time! Your answers will be combined with others to help us understand civics knowledge gaps and build better public education resources.
What’s included
AI follow-ups
Adaptive probes on open-ended answers that pull out detail a static form would miss.
Attention checks
Built-in safeguards against rushed answers and low-quality respondents.
AI-drafted copy
Wording, ordering, and branching written by the AI — tuned to your research goal.
Auto report
Themes, quotes, and a plain-English summary write themselves once responses come in.
How it compares
We reviewed the closest templates from other survey tools. Here’s what they do well — and where this template goes further.
Why this template
- Goes beyond simple fact-checking by using an AI follow-up interview that asks respondents to walk through their reasoning on the civics questions they just answered, surfacing why gaps exist rather than just that they exist
- Pairs objective knowledge questions (Senate terms, judicial review, Supreme Court size, presidential age minimum, the three branches) with self-reported confidence and information-seeking behavior (a 30-day recall question and a source-reliance ranking) to connect what people know with how they navigate political information
- Includes standard demographic and political-leaning breakouts (age, education, political leaning) so results can be segmented, plus an automated report generated at the end
- Uses transparent, viewable AI follow-up prompts, so researchers can audit exactly what probing question was asked rather than trusting a black-box scoring process
SurveyMonkey
U.S. Political Knowledge Survey TemplateThis is a genuinely comparable, ready-to-field template covering U.S. political knowledge basics. It appears to be a static multiple-choice/short-answer instrument rather than one with adaptive probing, so it's best suited to straightforward knowledge scoring rather than exploring the reasoning behind answers. SurveyMonkey's broader platform (logic branching, panel access, analysis tools) is mature and well-known to researchers.
What it does well
- Purpose-built specifically for U.S. political knowledge, so questions are directly on-topic
- Backed by SurveyMonkey's established survey infrastructure, distribution, and analysis tooling
- Likely quick to deploy for straightforward knowledge-testing use cases
Where it falls short
- No indication of adaptive AI follow-up questioning to probe how or why respondents answered the way they did
- No apparent mechanism for automated per-response quality scoring
- No published prompt-level methodology or transparency into how any AI-assisted elements (if present) generate content
Ready to launch?
Open this template in the editor. Every part is yours to change before the first respondent sees it.