Now PZ, I know that the election polls get mighty annoying, but I’m a social scientist and survey research is a very useful tool. It’s hard enough overcoming people’s growing aversion to answering surveys without you weighing in and wanting to kill us.
Nice. I also got to agree with #2. While polls, particularly incorrectly done polls, can be annoying, they are a useful social science and Pharyngula team building exercise.
Polls done well are useful — most internet polls are awful things that damage the reputation of surveying instruments.
(Just so you don’t think my dislike is global, the Trophy Wife is a psychologist who got her Ph.D. doing survey research, so no, I do know that it can be good stuff. We still try to answer any serious surveys sent to us seriously.)
21% of redheaded people think polls are pointless and don’t prove anything.
tsgsays
12% of people polled said they would never answer a poll.
Enzymesays
84% of statistics are made up on the spot. – Vic Reeves.
tsgsays
Poll: Are Internet polls useful?
* No
* No
* Hell No
Desert Sonsays
To: tsg, Enzyme, Vic Reeves (by proxy)
From: Robert
Date: 24 September 2008
Please remit at earliest convenience cost of one (1) computer keyboard damaged by reflexive laughter resulting in oral expulsion of coffee onto subject component.
No kings,
Robert
tsgsays
Please remit at earliest convenience cost of one (1) computer keyboard damaged by reflexive laughter resulting in oral expulsion of coffee onto subject component.
cat coffee | nose > keyboard
E.V.says
Bravo for giving a shout out to the Trophy Wife™. A PhD in Biology, a PhD in Psychology, smart kids -how ideal can one household get? Anyone up for a poll?
Who Caressays
Dangit leave the cat alone when piping coffee to the keyboard. That is animal cruelty .
E.V.says
Who is Dr. Sam Parnia and why is he getting so much media attention?
ThirtyFiveUpsays
Nate Silver has a blog FiveThirtyEight, Electoral Projections Done Right.
Why bother with a survey when you can ask God what people are thinking?
.
.
.
Just kidding!
Holbachsays
That should have been a creationist crud inder that boulder. “Hey moron, where was your god to pulverze that boulder into sand before it landed on your crazed skull?”
I got polled the other night for our Governor race. I thought it was a push poll for a while, because the question lead-ins were all about hellish, evil things one candidate had done, and then they would ask whether that changed my opinion. Then, they followed it with the other candidate in the same pattern, so I have to wonder. Maybe it was sponsored by the Libertarians?
Qwertysays
Polls that tell us how many Americans buy into outmoded beliefs like creationism and/or new idiocy like intelligent design can be useful in telling us how much work needs to be done to convince these people that their thinking is outmoded.
Popularity polls on the internet are the useless and pointless polls that do nothing to change attitudes.
Carliesays
Ranson, perhaps you were the test poll for the questions? I got one from my state rep’s office awhile back that was clearly the “how do we market him” poll – it was all “how much does this statement make you likely to vote for this candidate”. The poor pollster got an earful on the statements that were about things I heavily disagreed with the candidate about. :)
Haha, I really think marketing plays a huge role in political elections, too much, in fact. It’s all about putting the “best face” on things now. People tend to be unable to handle the ugly truth about the world they experience and that may be part of the reason why science is having so much difficulty with the general public.
Patriciasays
Everybody answers polls.
Watch, I’ll prove it.
Do you take polls?
– Yes
– No
tsgsays
Do you take polls?
– Yes
X No
tsgsays
Bah. Bloody blockquote wasted the formatting.
David Marjanović, OMsays
Here’s a poll you’re going to like.
Wen würden Sie wählen?
John McCain 7%
Barack Obama 81%
Keinen der beiden 12%
Abgegebene Stimmen: 46523
Translations: “who would you vote for”, “neither”, and “[total number of] cast votes”.
This is in the public section of my e-mail provider’s website, so it’s crashable, but… :-Þ
David Marjanović, OMsays
Completely forgot to mention that most of the people who are likely to have even seen this poll so far are Germans, and most of the rest are Austrians and German-speaking Swiss. So, of those people, 81 % are for Barack America.
Ichthyicsays
I really think marketing plays a huge role in political elections everything, too much, in fact. It’s all about putting the “best face” on things now
thought that could be generalized at least a bit more.
anybody ever catch the “Mad-Men” series on AMC?
Ichthyicsays
So, of those people, 81 % are for Barack America.
you’re being satirical, right??
This is in the public section of my e-mail provider’s website, so it’s crashable,
Die Anywaysays
>”Maybe it was sponsored by the Libertarians?”
Maybe, but most poll-calls that I get have only Rep/Dem answers. Like: What should the government spend tax money on?
A – Roads and bridges
B – Schools
C – Something else of your choice
Where’s the choice that says “The government shouldn’t be taxing me and spending my money on anything.” The de facto assumption is that the government should have your money to spend and the only question is “on what”. It’s possible that some of the phone polls are better than teh internet ones but not in my experience. However, I still love to pharyngulate any internet poll PZ links to. It may be pointless but I guess I’m easily amused.
Probably the most amusingly pointless internet poll I’ve seen was on the Weather Channel’s website: “How often do you check the weather?”
…
On a website that you can use to check the weather. Which means that the more often you check the weather, the better the chance that you’ll happen to check it during the period when that poll was up, so its very design ensures that it’ll be skewed towards the more frequent end!
Gray Lensmansays
Asking 800 people out of 300 million their opinion about anything and then using that to measure anything has always felt too much like religious faith to me.
Grecosays
Probably the most amusingly pointless internet poll I’ve seen was on the Weather Channel’s website: “How often do you check the weather?”
One of the most amusing things I’ve ever seen was an online poll at O Globo, which asked “Do you use the internet?”.
I couldn’t find a link, but last time I saw it “no” was over 70%.
Nerd of Redheadsays
I had a call earlier this year from an outfit looking into ways to get my local congresscritter reelected. They got an earful about him (a moderate republican) needing to distance himself from the religious right and the neocons. It wasn’t hard to figure out the direction of the questions.
I’m finding myself getting less tolerant of answering pollsters questions as I age. The fact that they always seem to call during a new episode of Mythbusters doesn’t help.
I try to answer the phone polls when they call, for no other reason than I often get paid for them (I’ve been signed up for a marketing pollster for almost 15 years now). With the political ones, though, I just love screwing with the demographics. I’m a married white male atheist father of two with centrist-to-left leanings on social and fiscal policy. Now, add in that I’m currently registered Republican (registration change to independent is on the kitchen table). That really screws with the local political machine.
I like being at the end of the bell curve, sometimes.
Are polls worthwhile? Vote now…
Now PZ, I know that the election polls get mighty annoying, but I’m a social scientist and survey research is a very useful tool. It’s hard enough overcoming people’s growing aversion to answering surveys without you weighing in and wanting to kill us.
Nice. I also got to agree with #2. While polls, particularly incorrectly done polls, can be annoying, they are a useful social science and Pharyngula team building exercise.
Polls done well are useful — most internet polls are awful things that damage the reputation of surveying instruments.
(Just so you don’t think my dislike is global, the Trophy Wife is a psychologist who got her Ph.D. doing survey research, so no, I do know that it can be good stuff. We still try to answer any serious surveys sent to us seriously.)
I thought pollsters mostly used phone call for efficiency, not self defense!
I stopped doing polls and questionnaires a couple of years ago. It drove me crazy. I find being a curmudgeon much more rewarding (and fun to boot).
Serious surveys are one thing, online surveys are complete nonsense.
Question: Do you believe that Atheists are “Real Citizens”?
Press 1 for “Yes”.
Press 2 for “No”.
Press 3 for “I don’t know”.
Press # to “Crush pollster with boulder”.
# # # # # # #
21% of redheaded people think polls are pointless and don’t prove anything.
12% of people polled said they would never answer a poll.
84% of statistics are made up on the spot. – Vic Reeves.
Poll: Are Internet polls useful?
* No
* No
* Hell No
To: tsg, Enzyme, Vic Reeves (by proxy)
From: Robert
Date: 24 September 2008
Please remit at earliest convenience cost of one (1) computer keyboard damaged by reflexive laughter resulting in oral expulsion of coffee onto subject component.
No kings,
Robert
cat coffee | nose > keyboard
Bravo for giving a shout out to the Trophy Wife™. A PhD in Biology, a PhD in Psychology, smart kids -how ideal can one household get? Anyone up for a poll?
Dangit leave the cat alone when piping coffee to the keyboard. That is animal cruelty .
Who is Dr. Sam Parnia and why is he getting so much media attention?
Nate Silver has a blog FiveThirtyEight, Electoral Projections Done Right.
http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/
If you are unfamiliar with this blog, take a look at the FAQ first.
http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2008/03/frequently-asked-questions-last-revised.html
Why bother with a survey when you can ask God what people are thinking?
.
.
.
Just kidding!
That should have been a creationist crud inder that boulder. “Hey moron, where was your god to pulverze that boulder into sand before it landed on your crazed skull?”
I got polled the other night for our Governor race. I thought it was a push poll for a while, because the question lead-ins were all about hellish, evil things one candidate had done, and then they would ask whether that changed my opinion. Then, they followed it with the other candidate in the same pattern, so I have to wonder. Maybe it was sponsored by the Libertarians?
Polls that tell us how many Americans buy into outmoded beliefs like creationism and/or new idiocy like intelligent design can be useful in telling us how much work needs to be done to convince these people that their thinking is outmoded.
Popularity polls on the internet are the useless and pointless polls that do nothing to change attitudes.
Ranson, perhaps you were the test poll for the questions? I got one from my state rep’s office awhile back that was clearly the “how do we market him” poll – it was all “how much does this statement make you likely to vote for this candidate”. The poor pollster got an earful on the statements that were about things I heavily disagreed with the candidate about. :)
Haha, I really think marketing plays a huge role in political elections, too much, in fact. It’s all about putting the “best face” on things now. People tend to be unable to handle the ugly truth about the world they experience and that may be part of the reason why science is having so much difficulty with the general public.
Everybody answers polls.
Watch, I’ll prove it.
Do you take polls?
– Yes
– No
Bah. Bloody blockquote wasted the formatting.
Here’s a poll you’re going to like.
Translations: “who would you vote for”, “neither”, and “[total number of] cast votes”.
This is in the public section of my e-mail provider’s website, so it’s crashable, but… :-Þ
Completely forgot to mention that most of the people who are likely to have even seen this poll so far are Germans, and most of the rest are Austrians and German-speaking Swiss. So, of those people, 81 % are for Barack America.
I really think marketing plays a huge role in
political electionseverything, too much, in fact. It’s all about putting the “best face” on things nowthought that could be generalized at least a bit more.
anybody ever catch the “Mad-Men” series on AMC?
So, of those people, 81 % are for Barack America.
you’re being satirical, right??
This is in the public section of my e-mail provider’s website, so it’s crashable,
>”Maybe it was sponsored by the Libertarians?”
Maybe, but most poll-calls that I get have only Rep/Dem answers. Like: What should the government spend tax money on?
A – Roads and bridges
B – Schools
C – Something else of your choice
Where’s the choice that says “The government shouldn’t be taxing me and spending my money on anything.” The de facto assumption is that the government should have your money to spend and the only question is “on what”. It’s possible that some of the phone polls are better than teh internet ones but not in my experience. However, I still love to pharyngulate any internet poll PZ links to. It may be pointless but I guess I’m easily amused.
Probably the most amusingly pointless internet poll I’ve seen was on the Weather Channel’s website: “How often do you check the weather?”
…
On a website that you can use to check the weather. Which means that the more often you check the weather, the better the chance that you’ll happen to check it during the period when that poll was up, so its very design ensures that it’ll be skewed towards the more frequent end!
Asking 800 people out of 300 million their opinion about anything and then using that to measure anything has always felt too much like religious faith to me.
One of the most amusing things I’ve ever seen was an online poll at O Globo, which asked “Do you use the internet?”.
I couldn’t find a link, but last time I saw it “no” was over 70%.
I had a call earlier this year from an outfit looking into ways to get my local congresscritter reelected. They got an earful about him (a moderate republican) needing to distance himself from the religious right and the neocons. It wasn’t hard to figure out the direction of the questions.
I’m finding myself getting less tolerant of answering pollsters questions as I age. The fact that they always seem to call during a new episode of Mythbusters doesn’t help.
I can see now why people consider push-polling unethical, if what you’re pushing is a giant boulder onto someone.
I try to answer the phone polls when they call, for no other reason than I often get paid for them (I’ve been signed up for a marketing pollster for almost 15 years now). With the political ones, though, I just love screwing with the demographics. I’m a married white male atheist father of two with centrist-to-left leanings on social and fiscal policy. Now, add in that I’m currently registered Republican (registration change to independent is on the kitchen table). That really screws with the local political machine.
I like being at the end of the bell curve, sometimes.