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Is it wrong to lie to pollsters?
Oct. 28th, 2008 12:08 pm'tis the season of random calls from pollsters. My question is this: Is it wrong to lie to them?
I'm against polls for a lot of reasons -- mostly because they are unreliable and easily misinterpreted or skewed. I've studied statistics. I know how polls are run. I know that "representative sample" can mean that they only have to poll ~400 people in order to make a definitive statement on how the whole country feels. I also know that polls are voluntary and that people who choose not to participate don't matter, even if they happen to belong to the narrow demographic necessary in order for the pollsters to reach their "representative sample".
Beyond that, I know that there is a whole "psychology" behind the way the questions are phrased and read. I know that you can write polls to get a specific answer. I know that many times the first questions in a poll are "set up" questions, prepared to get people thinking a certain way and then the "final" question -- the one that shows up on the reported results -- are colored by all the prior questions. I even know that some people use polling with loaded questions and statements in order to feed specifically spun information to people.
Most of all, I am pissed at answering the phone taking the time to answer a couple of questions only to be told that my opinion doesn't matter because I don't fit the one demographic they are missing... after all they talked to someone who happens to be my sex or gender or age or education or zip code and therefor they know exactly how I think.
Polls as news are at best manufactured news (write a poll and then have a big news story about what it "means") and at worst a socially endorsed form of peer pressure.
So:
Is it wrong to lie and say that I am in whatever group they are looking for? Granted "gay 18-year-old Hispanic man from New York" is hard for me to pull off, but I can cover a lot of the choices they have. What if I fit the demographic but out-and-out lie about what my opinion is? For example: "Yes, I am a 43-year-old-once-married-mother-of-a-teenager and I definitely plan on voting for Candidate X" when I really plan on voting for Candidate Y. If I say Bugs Bunny or Winston Churchill rather than a real candidate, does that make a difference?
And if someone out there chooses to vote or not to vote based on a poll to which I provided unreliable information, who's the real idiot -- me for lying or them for voting a certain way only because of a reported statistic that doesn't mean anything in the first place.
Oh -- and would it make a difference if I was lying to someone at an exit poll?
I'm against polls for a lot of reasons -- mostly because they are unreliable and easily misinterpreted or skewed. I've studied statistics. I know how polls are run. I know that "representative sample" can mean that they only have to poll ~400 people in order to make a definitive statement on how the whole country feels. I also know that polls are voluntary and that people who choose not to participate don't matter, even if they happen to belong to the narrow demographic necessary in order for the pollsters to reach their "representative sample".
Beyond that, I know that there is a whole "psychology" behind the way the questions are phrased and read. I know that you can write polls to get a specific answer. I know that many times the first questions in a poll are "set up" questions, prepared to get people thinking a certain way and then the "final" question -- the one that shows up on the reported results -- are colored by all the prior questions. I even know that some people use polling with loaded questions and statements in order to feed specifically spun information to people.
Most of all, I am pissed at answering the phone taking the time to answer a couple of questions only to be told that my opinion doesn't matter because I don't fit the one demographic they are missing... after all they talked to someone who happens to be my sex or gender or age or education or zip code and therefor they know exactly how I think.
Polls as news are at best manufactured news (write a poll and then have a big news story about what it "means") and at worst a socially endorsed form of peer pressure.
So:
Is it wrong to lie and say that I am in whatever group they are looking for? Granted "gay 18-year-old Hispanic man from New York" is hard for me to pull off, but I can cover a lot of the choices they have. What if I fit the demographic but out-and-out lie about what my opinion is? For example: "Yes, I am a 43-year-old-once-married-mother-of-a-teenager and I definitely plan on voting for Candidate X" when I really plan on voting for Candidate Y. If I say Bugs Bunny or Winston Churchill rather than a real candidate, does that make a difference?
And if someone out there chooses to vote or not to vote based on a poll to which I provided unreliable information, who's the real idiot -- me for lying or them for voting a certain way only because of a reported statistic that doesn't mean anything in the first place.
Oh -- and would it make a difference if I was lying to someone at an exit poll?
