There’s lies, damn lies and statistics ……. Mark Twain.
Remember that next time you hear about a new study or that 4 out of 5 dentists agree or 97% of scientists agree. Numbers are easily twisted.
Here is an example: A recent poll discovered that 75% of those surveyed were very certain or somewhat certain that ***insert controversial issue here*** is true. I don’t know about anybody else but I think the difference between very certain and somewhat certain is huge. Why would these two obviously different opinions be lumped together? To me being very certain is saying “yes, absolutely, I agree one hundred percent.” Whereas being somewhat certain is like saying ” yeah, I guess so” as if they are not sure or convinced. If 20% of the people said they were very certain and 55% of the people said they were somewhat certain and you wanted an outcome of people being certain about it then you can lump the two groups together as being certain and achieve the outcome you wanted for your poll.
Say you want your poll to be negative, all you have to do is change somewhat certain to somewhat uncertain. As you know this group is the majority that won’t commit strongly either way you will have your desired negative outcome by adding the uncertain and the somewhat uncertain votes together.
Real world example
- You liked this blog post very much
- You liked this blog post somewhat
- You liked this blog post not at all
No matter which option you pick, you will have liked this post in some way, guaranteeing me 100% positive reviews. I have done quite a few online surveys and have found wording just like this. By the time you finish the survey there is usually no doubt as to what the desired outcome is because of the phrasing of the questions.
Why do polls if they are so easily manipulated?
You would think that a poll is designed to find out the opinions of a group of people but that rarely seems to be the case. Paid surveys are particularly suspicious. I did a bunch of them and I found that if I went negative when the poll was clearly looking for positives I would not get paid for the survey with an excuse like, I took too long. On the other hand if I followed the flow of the survey toward the obvious desired outcome, I somehow always did it quick enough and therefore got paid (1 or 2 dollars). It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure this out. People are taking surveys to make a few dollars online. If 75% of the options are positive in nature then pick from that group and do it as fast as you can. You will most often finish in time to get paid. You don’t even need to read the questions.
The only obvious conclusion is that these polls are not there to tell the opinions of the ones polled but to express an opinion, meaning they want to sway opinions by showing people that the majority believe whatever thing they are polling. It is human nature to follow the crowd. Polls create an illusion of a crowd.
As always this is just my opinion. Feel free to set me straight or tell an experience of your own.