“When did you quit beating your wife?” “Would
you rather be red and dead?” “Would you prefer to kill Bill Clinton or Hillary
Clinton?” “Do you think that all or just certain democrats should be in jail?” “Do
you think Ronald Reagan or G.W. Bush should be cast into the outer rings of
hell?”
All of the above are types of questions
that pollsters should not ask. Admitted some pollsters are a bit trickier than
others but there are polls that have a definite bias and should be known for
their biases.
One of the polls that is most respected in this country is the
Gallup Poll, but the Huffington Press has recently detected what they believe
is a bias in the polling. This bias is found that they typically produced polls
that are more negative of President Obama than polls of other firms. The Post
believes this is due to the way Gallup handles the racial composition of its
samples. For instance this below:
We reviewed Gallup's polls over a
two-week period from April 11 to 26.
Gallup's interviews showed Obama
leading Romney by an average of 1.3 points (46.7 to 45.3 percent). Seven other
national surveys conducted during that timeframe using similar methods put
Obama ahead by a wider, 3.9-point margin (47.9 to 44.0 percent).
Here are a couple of graphs supporting
their premise.
I find all of this very interesting and
suggest you go to the following for the full story.
Steven Colbert's "Do you think GW Bush is a great president, or the greatest president" comes to mind. Further statistical analysis of
ReplyDelete'pollster introduced error' can be found here .
I'm impressed that polls get any response at all since Caller ID was invented.
ReplyDeleteLike I support the right to free speech, but favor being able to shut off the TV or change the channel, I favor efforts to stop telephone harassment.
ReplyDeleteThe "Do Not Call" registry should be expanded to include all robocalls and politicians, and all phone numbers should by default be put on the list, and only taken off if someone asks for it.
PK said: "I'm impressed that polls get any response at all since Caller ID was invented."
It's like with spam. If one in a million respond, that is enough to make it worthwhile.