Wavelength Questions to Ask
Twenty spectrum questions for a game of Wavelength or any night where people guess where each other would land on a scale. Each one notes where the room usually splits and how the argument tends to go.
The questions
Open any question for the note
Where does pineapple on pizza sit between a crime and a delicacy?
Why ask it
A safe opener because everybody already has a position and nobody is risking anything by stating it. Watch for the person who lands in the exact middle, since they are usually being diplomatic rather than honest, which is the wrong instinct for this game.
Where does cereal with milk sit between not a soup and definitely a soup?
Why ask it
The fun is that the correct answer feels obvious and half the room has the opposite obvious answer. Ask what definition of soup they are using and the split reveals itself as a disagreement about categories rather than about breakfast.
Where do socks with sandals sit between practical and indefensible?
Why ask it
Ages the group instantly, since tolerance for this tends to track how long someone has stopped caring what strangers think. If someone claims total indifference to appearance, this is where you find out whether that holds.
Where does coffee sit between an ordinary drink and a drug?
Why ask it
Heavy drinkers usually place it further toward drug than people who rarely touch it, which is the opposite of what the group expects. Good second round question because it sounds silly and then produces a real conversation about dependence.
Where does the sound of someone chewing sit between neutral and unbearable?
Why ask it
One of the widest spreads you will get, because for some people this is genuinely distressing and for others it does not register at all. Do not let the low scorers tease the high scorers, since that reaction is not a preference.
Where does reading the last page of a book first sit between a personal choice and actually wrong?
Why ask it
Splits a room along whether people think a story belongs to the author or to the reader. The strongest reactions come from people who reread constantly, and their reasoning is usually worth hearing out.
Where does an eight in the morning meeting sit between reasonable and hostile?
Why ask it
Depends almost entirely on commute, caring duties and chronotype, so the disagreement is about circumstances rather than character. Useful with colleagues because it surfaces a scheduling complaint as a joke instead of a grievance.
Where does replying to a text three days later sit between fine and unforgivable?
Why ask it
The spread here is a genuinely useful thing to know about the people in the room, whether they are friends or a couple. Expect at least one person to discover that their normal response time is somebody else's insult.
Where does we should hang out sometime sit between a real plan and a polite goodbye?
Why ask it
Everyone has been on both sides of this phrase and nobody agrees on what it means. Ask what would have to be added to make it a plan, and you get a practical answer about how each person actually makes arrangements.
Where does splitting a bill down to the cent sit between fair and petty?
Why ask it
Money questions produce the sharpest edges in an otherwise light game, so place this after a few easy rounds. The answer usually says less about arithmetic than about who in the group has been quietly overpaying.
Where does keeping the heating off to save money sit between thrifty and cruel?
Why ask it
How people grew up shows up here immediately, and often more plainly than in any direct question about money. Keep the tone light if someone's answer suddenly gets specific about a cold childhood house.
Where does bringing an uninvited plus one sit between no big deal and friendship ending?
Why ask it
Hosts and guests answer this from different planets, so ask people to say which role they are imagining. If a wedding is coming up in the group, expect this round to run long.
Where does your favorite band sit between underrated and overrated?
Why ask it
Turns the scale on the person answering rather than on an object, which raises the stakes slightly. The interesting answers come from people who love something they know is overpraised and will still defend it.
Where does your hometown sit between somewhere to leave and somewhere to end up?
Why ask it
The first genuinely personal question here, and it works because a number is easier to say out loud than a paragraph. Follow up with what would move the number rather than why it is where it is.
Where does being ten minutes late sit between nothing at all and disrespectful?
Why ask it
Reliably exposes an unspoken rule that the group has been operating under without agreement. If one person is much stricter than everyone else, they have probably been irritated for months without saying so.
Where does reading a partner's messages without asking sit between understandable and a hard line?
Why ask it
Best kept for people who know each other, since the answers can land as accusations in a new group. Ask about circumstances rather than absolutes, because most people move their number once a specific scenario is described.
Where does telling a friend their partner is bad for them sit between loyal and out of line?
Why ask it
Nearly everyone has either done this or wished someone had done it for them, and those two groups answer differently. Notice whether people distinguish saying it once from saying it repeatedly, which is usually where the real disagreement is.
Where does telling someone the unflattering truth about how they look sit between kind and cruel?
Why ask it
Gets at whether a person treats honesty as a service or a liberty, which shapes a lot of how they behave with friends. The follow up worth asking is whether they want it done to them, since the answers often do not match.
Where does ambition sit between a virtue and a warning sign?
Why ask it
Abstract enough to feel safe and specific enough that answers vary widely by age and by what people have watched ambition cost someone. Ask who they were picturing, because everyone has a particular person in mind.
Where does forgiving a parent sit between necessary and optional?
Why ask it
The heaviest question here, so it belongs at the end of the night with people you trust. Accept a number without a story, and do not ask anyone to explain a placement they clearly do not want to discuss.
Running a Good Round
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
How to Play It
Commit to a Number Before Anyone Talks
Have everyone write down a placement from one to ten before the discussion starts. Without that step the loudest person sets the frame and everyone else quietly drifts toward them.
Guess Each Other, Not the Truth
The game is more fun when someone has to predict where a specific other person landed. Being wrong about a friend you have known for ten years is the point, and it produces better conversation than agreeing does.
Spend the Time on Why, Not Where
A number is only an opening. The reasoning behind a four is where you learn something, and it is often about a house they grew up in or a job they had rather than about the topic itself.
Pick Opposites That Are Not Really Opposites
Hot and cold gives you nothing to argue about. Crime and delicacy works because the two ends are not the same kind of judgment, which forces people to decide what is being measured.
Escalate Slowly
Start on food and sound, move to money and time, and only reach the questions about family or partners if the group is small and already comfortable. Going straight to the last few questions makes the evening feel like an intervention.
Common Pitfalls
Don't Litigate a Real Grievance
Choosing the lateness question because one friend is always late turns a game into an ambush. If there is a live complaint in the group, leave that scale out of the deck.
Don't Let the Middle Win
Placements of five are usually people avoiding an opinion. Ask them to move one step in either direction and say why, and the round comes alive again.
Don't Argue Someone Off Their Number
The chewing question and the money questions attract people who want to correct the outliers. Once anybody's placement has been argued down, everyone else starts answering strategically.
Don't Reveal Placements Someone Regrets
If a heavier question produces an answer the person clearly wishes they had kept quiet, drop it there and move on. Bringing it up later in the evening is what makes people refuse to play again.
Three Ready Made Rounds
Warm Up With Strangers
- 1Open with the pineapple on pizza scale.
- 2Then cereal as a soup, which usually gets everyone arguing at once.
- 3Follow with socks and sandals.
- 4Close on coffee as an ordinary drink or a drug.
The House Rules Round
- 1Start with the eight in the morning meeting.
- 2Move to a three day reply to a text.
- 3Then splitting a bill down to the cent.
- 4Finish with being ten minutes late.
Late Night, Small Group
- 1Begin with your hometown as somewhere to leave or somewhere to end up.
- 2Move to telling a friend their partner is bad for them.
- 3Then ambition as a virtue or a warning sign.
- 4End with forgiving a parent, and let the last answer stand without discussion.