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Is it wrong to lie to pollsters? And if it is, why? And how wrong is it?
Pollsters bug the hell out of me. I've done the statistics courses and studied the concept of using soft science to gather information that can confirm but not verify an hypothesis, so I have an understanding of how polling works. Which, in the end, does nothing to help me feel better about what they are doing. Add to that the dicey way the questions are framed and the fact that there are precedents for using polls as ways to plant negative and misleading ideas about some candidates, and I'm even less inclined to like them.
Finally, I believe that people will lie when talking to pollsters. However, that may be my old cynical-self talking and that belief may have no basis in reality. So, I'm asking for general opinions:
Is it wrong to lie to pollsters? And if it is, why? And how wrong is it?
Oh. And go vote. Because, you see, no one can lie on a ballot.
Pollsters bug the hell out of me. I've done the statistics courses and studied the concept of using soft science to gather information that can confirm but not verify an hypothesis, so I have an understanding of how polling works. Which, in the end, does nothing to help me feel better about what they are doing. Add to that the dicey way the questions are framed and the fact that there are precedents for using polls as ways to plant negative and misleading ideas about some candidates, and I'm even less inclined to like them.
Finally, I believe that people will lie when talking to pollsters. However, that may be my old cynical-self talking and that belief may have no basis in reality. So, I'm asking for general opinions:
Is it wrong to lie to pollsters? And if it is, why? And how wrong is it?
Oh. And go vote. Because, you see, no one can lie on a ballot.
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Date: 2006-11-08 12:45 am (UTC)From:A great example is polls regarding the Gay marriage ban, that is in a referendum in WI. There are people who are afraid if retaliation for expressing thier true veiws becaue some people are more radical on one side of the issue then the other
There are only a few polling companies I would be truthful to (Zogby's for one) they others can take thier survey's and shove it