Blogocentric Formulations

Biased Public Opinion Polls

I just received a phone call, and I'm still steaming about it... and thus, I blog.

I got one of those public opinion phone calls, where someone (in this case John Boehner) gives a short recorded message with an opinion (in this case that Republican need to stay strong and overthrow un-American - yes, he used that word - Democrat policies that are ruining out way of life.) and then an "assistant" comes on the line and has a few survey questions for you to answer about the message. Seems simple enough and I don't have anything going on this morning, so I was happy to spend a few moments on the phone contributing to the political process and, as the message said, giving voice to the American people. Why not, right?

First question:

"Do you support across the board tax breaks, or wasteful government spending?"

That gave me a bit of pause. I don't think everyone should get a tax break... some people and businesses already get plenty if you ask me... but I certainly don't want to see wasteful government spending. So I asked for clarification. "Surely you mean just regular government spending, right? Big government, federal programs, that kind of stuff?" "Oh no, sir. We mean wasteful government spending, where the government takes your hard-earned dollars and dumps them into programs like welfare." "And those are my only two choices?" "Yes, sir."

I told her I didn't agree support either statement and with a bit of an irritated huff, she goes onto the next question:

"Do you support House Resolution X, or do you support shipping American jobs overseas?"

Again, I paused. "What's House Resolution X?" "I don't have that information, sir." "Well, is it even related to shipping American jobs overseas?" "I don't believe so, sir. I just need your answers so we can move onto the next question."

I told her that I didn't feel comfortable lending my name or statistical data to what was clearly a biased and unethical public opinion poll. I could tell she wasn't listening to me (mostly by the dial tone I heard halfway through my explanation of my reasoning), but I told her I was insulted and offended that someone would so clearly structure a "public opinion" poll to give credence and statistical validity to their causes by comparing them against unrelated and excessive issues that are clearly not in America's best interests. This takes statistical analysis (which can already be interpreted a variety of ways) one step further into ridiculousness by "fixing" the data being collected in the first place. Of course 95% of Americans support across the board tax breaks... if their other option is wasteful government spending! But they don't tell you the options you were presented with when John Boehner or whoever steps up and gives a speech about how he's giving big business another tax break because it's what the American people want.

Okay, I feel better now that I got that out there.

The point of this post is to plead with you, my wonderful readers - if you do participate in public opinion polls or any kind of activity where they're gathering statistical data for market research - to really think about what they're asking... and if you're not comfortable with the questions being asked, or don't agree with the way the survey questions are pushing you toward a particular response... decline to take the survey. Tell them you're not interested in contributing to a biased survey that promotes an agenda more than it figures out what the demographic(s) really think.

I think it's disgusting that this kind of unethical research is being conducted, because you never know what a poll like this is going to be used for. Maybe for something as minor as a talking point in a speech. Maybe for something as significant as a piece of legislation that fundamentally changes the laws of this country. Regardless, there's only one way to ensure your voice is truly heard... and that's to only offer it when you agree with the position you're taking.