Here are some of the best questions for an ex-cult member survey about rebuilding trust, plus tips on how to create them. If you need to build your own survey, you can generate one instantly with Specific—it’s fast and feels natural.
What are the best open-ended questions for ex-cult member survey about rebuilding trust?
Open-ended questions let people tell their story in their own words, which makes these especially powerful for sensitive topics like rebuilding trust after cult involvement. They dig into feelings, context, and experiences—key when you need depth, not just stats. The best time to use them? When you want qualitative insight, not just a number.
Given that approximately 40% of ex-cult members report lingering feelings of guilt and shame after leaving a cult, it’s crucial to create space for open dialogue and context. [1]
How has your experience with the cult affected your ability to trust others?
Can you describe a moment when you struggled to trust someone after leaving the cult?
What actions or experiences have helped you rebuild trust in yourself since leaving?
Which relationships (family, friends, professionals) have been most supportive in your trust-building journey?
Are there specific situations where you find it harder to trust, even now? Please describe.
What has been the biggest source of support—or the opposite—for you when it comes to trust?
How do feelings of guilt or shame, if any, affect your ability to rebuild trust?
What would you want others (outside the ex-cult community) to know about trust issues after leaving?
If you’ve participated in trust-building activities or therapy, what was most impactful?
Imagine a safe conversation about trust—what questions would you want to be asked?
These questions are designed to give ex-cult members agency and to surface themes that numbers alone can’t capture. In practical terms, these qualitative questions can lead to unexpected insights and foster healing through honest sharing. If you want to start right away, try using a ready-made conversational survey template for ex-cult members.
What are the best single-select multiple-choice questions for ex-cult member survey about rebuilding trust?
Single-select multiple-choice questions come in handy when you need to quantify experiences or help someone ease into a conversation. They’re less mentally demanding and can break the ice, especially on tough topics. For ex-cult members dealing with trust issues, clear options can make participation feel less intimidating—then you can follow up for rich context.
Question: Since leaving the cult, how easy has it been for you to trust new people?
Very easy
Somewhat easy
Somewhat difficult
Very difficult
Question: Which area has been most challenging for you in rebuilding trust?
Trusting family
Trusting friends
Trusting professionals (therapists, doctors, etc.)
Trusting strangers or new acquaintances
Question: What, if anything, has helped you rebuild trust the most?
Counseling or therapy
Support groups
Personal reflection/journaling
Other
When to follow up with "why?" Often, when someone chooses an option, you’ll want to dig deeper. For example, if a respondent says “Support groups” helped them the most, following up with “Why did support groups help more than other options?” can surface actionable stories and suggestions. Asking “why?” after most multiple-choice questions transforms quick taps into learning moments.
When and why to add the "Other" choice? Always consider “Other” when your options might not cover everyone’s situation. Ex-cult experiences are incredibly diverse. If you add “Other,” always follow up with an open-ended question (“Please specify”)—this can lead to rare but important insights you’d otherwise miss.
NPS-style question for rebuilding trust in ex-cult member surveys
Net Promoter Score (NPS) isn’t just for brands—it’s a proven question format for gauging overall sentiment, even in healing and recovery journeys. For ex-cult members, an NPS-style question like “How likely are you to recommend a support group or resource you found helpful to someone else leaving a cult?” can quantify community trust and highlight useful resources. This helps organizations prioritize what works and spot pain points. If you want to try this style, you can instantly create an ex-cult member NPS survey here.
The power of follow-up questions
Follow-up questions are the secret sauce in any meaningful survey, and that’s where Specific shines. Instead of leaving it to you to manually chase clarifications, the AI follow-up feature in Specific probes deeply—just like a skilled human interviewer.
Ex-cult member: “I find it hard to trust anyone new.”
AI follow-up: “Can you describe a time this was especially difficult? What was going on?”
Without automated follow-ups, you’d be stuck with vague or incomplete answers and an overwhelming email loop. The AI makes the conversation feel natural and gets deeper context almost effortlessly.
How many followups to ask? In most cases, asking two or three follow-up questions is enough. This keeps conversations meaningful but avoids fatigue. If you already have the info you wanted, enable a setting to skip further probing. Specific lets you fine-tune this goal so you’re always in control.
This makes it a conversational survey: When you get context in real time and ask for clarification, the survey feels like a genuine conversation—not a cold form. Respondents are more likely to open up and trust the process.
AI survey analysis, AI follow-up, analyze: Even if you end up with lots of unstructured text, it’s easy to analyze results with AI. Just chat with the platform to spot patterns and dig deeper—it’s user-friendly and powerful.
Automated follow-up questions are a relatively new concept in survey design. Try generating a survey with them in Specific and experience the improvement for yourself.
How to write prompts for ChatGPT and GPTs to create great questions for ex-cult member survey about rebuilding trust
Great survey design often starts with the right prompt for the AI. If you want to use ChatGPT or any GPT tool, try this simple approach first:
Suggest 10 open-ended questions for ex-cult member survey about rebuilding trust.
You’ll get far better results if you add context about your situation and goals. For example:
I’m designing a conversational survey for ex-cult members who may still be working through feelings of guilt and shame. My goal is to understand common trust challenges and identify what actually helps people rebuild trust with family, friends, and themselves. Suggest 10 thoughtful open-ended questions I should ask.
Once you have a list, categorize it for structure:
Look at the questions and categorize them. Output categories with the questions under them.
Then, pick categories you want to explore further—maybe “Trust Challenges” or “Support Systems”—and drill down:
Generate 10 questions for categories “Trust Challenges,” “Personal Growth,” and “Support Systems.”
This approach keeps your survey organized and makes sure you’re not missing key angles.
What is a conversational survey?
Conversational surveys turn old-school survey forms into engaging, chat-like experiences. Instead of a list of boxes and radio buttons, imagine your respondents feel like they’re messaging with a trusted peer—or even an expert interviewer. Your completion rates go up, responses are richer, and the feedback journey is far kinder for ex-cult members who may be wary of impersonal research.
Specific’s AI-powered survey builder takes it to the next level by automating survey creation and adaptation through natural conversation. You can customize everything—questions, tone, follow-up logic—with simple instructions, not coding.
Manual Survey Creation | AI-Generated Conversational Survey |
|---|---|
Manual question writing and logic setup | Prompt AI and get a full, smart survey in moments |
Scripted or static follow-ups (if any) | Dynamic AI-driven follow-up probing for context |
Analysis is manual, time-consuming | AI summarizes and lets you chat with your results |
Stale, form-like experience | Engaging, natural chat that feels human |
Why use AI for ex-cult member surveys? AI-generated surveys adapt to the needs of your audience—asking gentle or probing clarifiers as needed, and customizing the tone for respondents who may be navigating complex emotions. For ex-cult members, empathy and adaptability are everything. An AI survey example shows how dynamic follow-up and analysis can transform both the respondent's and the researcher's experience.
You can try building a conversational survey and quickly see the difference compared to old manual approaches—just check out this guide to creating your own survey for ex-cult member trust rebuilding.
With Specific, you get a best-in-class, interactive experience—whether as a standalone survey or quickly embedded in your site or support resources. It’s fast, personal, and actually encourages participation and honest responses.
See this rebuilding trust survey example now
Preview an ex-cult member survey about rebuilding trust and experience firsthand how conversational, AI-powered questions drive deeper, more genuine feedback. Tap into richer insight and make your next survey genuinely valuable and easy to build—Specific does the heavy lifting so you can focus on what matters: healing and understanding.