What do polls mean to you?
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unspoken_respect
Members Posts: 9,821 ✭✭✭✭✭
Evey time you turn on the news their is some kind of poll. And why?
Honestly I think their designed to persuade week minded people to think a certain way.
Example
If their is a poll that says 80% of the people in the US disapprove of how Obama is handling this country and Im part of the 20% that approves then why should I give a ? what everyone else thinks?
Am I missing something? Someone enlighten me please. Whats the point of telling people that a majority thinks a certain way and sometimes boosting numbers to make a poll seem lopsided?
Honestly I think their designed to persuade week minded people to think a certain way.
Example
If their is a poll that says 80% of the people in the US disapprove of how Obama is handling this country and Im part of the 20% that approves then why should I give a ? what everyone else thinks?
Am I missing something? Someone enlighten me please. Whats the point of telling people that a majority thinks a certain way and sometimes boosting numbers to make a poll seem lopsided?
Comments
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Nothin at all.. polls and statistics can be skewed according to the agendas.. and its only predictors based on some minimal sample size...
I have never been polled..
I guess you can get gist .. but it shouldnt be the determining factor.. or the concrete"evidence" of said trends.. or feelings -
Its to give the news something to talk about. Thats where it begins and ends.
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Here's the thing about these polls.
They're based on less than 1000 phone calls, in any given part of the US. CNN, MSNBC, and FOX have developed a habbit of making these polls reflect ALL Americans. There are hundreds of millions or Americans. Most of the people filling these polls are ? conservatives who want to help their base score political points. Think about it, most polls on the news are ANTI-Obama, and simply untrue. -
Yeah, polls are suspicious to me.
Especially if the demographic is from one location. -
Polls dont mean ? . How many times have you voted on one of these polls that appear as a news headline on ABC 7?
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Polls are a snapshot in time, showing public opinion on any issue. A series of polls about the same issue, conducted over time, can show trends in public opinion.
It's sad (but not surprising) to see all the ignorance about polling in this thread. You shouldn't trust any poll, as some are conducted by an institution that is pushing and agenda, and "push polls" which intentionally try to get a certain answer out of the person being interviewed are very real. But there are reputable institutions, such as Gallup, which use very detailed methods of removing bias from the polls and conducting them properly.
First of all, the part about pollsters only interviewing about 1,000 people. This is true, but if you know a little bit about statistics, 1,000 people is a perfectly good sample size, even in a country of 300,000,000 people. If it's truly a scientific poll, that sample of 1,000 should be a relatively accurate picture of the entire country. Any problem with getting a truly scientific, random sample that you can think of has already been thought of by a professional who spends their career finding solutions to variables that might skew the sample in one way or another.
Nonetheless, pollsters are humans, and there can be mistakes, so polls are not always accurate. This is why having numerous polls on the same topic is valuable. If the polls establish similar findings, it's a good bet that they're accurate. Outliers are often inaccurate.
The findings of polls has a big impact. One big example is that members of congress who are worried about losing re-election are much more likely to support issues that poll well and oppose those that do not. In the same sense, they're more likely to support a President's agenda if the President has a high approval rating.
And yes, the news media loves to blow polls out of proportion, but that's a reflection on the news media, not the polls. -
shootemwon wrote: »And yes, the news media loves to blow polls out of proportion, but that's a reflection on the news media, not the polls.
Truth.
And just for length, lbafliheiflweflksdlnf -
i hate polls but they show reality i guess if u see a trend over months then it should tell u something
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jennifer.bush* wrote: »i hate polls but they show reality i guess if u see a trend over months then it should tell u something
Yeah, polls are bad for a lot of reasons, but I can't front. As a political junkie I can't get enough of them.
