Tigger_Magic
I am opinionated, independent-minded, self-righteo
- Joined
- Mar 18, 2005
- Messages
- 3,265
Charade said:Perhaps we should pay more attention to the content of the polls that are being tossed about in the news (about the war, about Bush, etc) instead of just the raw numbers.
I believe that is why some people tend to disregard most polls. If you've studied almost anything about how polls are constructed/conducted, the real proof is in the poll content, construction and execution. Those three can be used to produce almost any result one wants. Factor in what part of the population is to be polled and how large a sample one polls and one can produce results to prove almost anything.
There is a science (of sorts) to polling. I took a course in audience research and analysis once; there are all sorts of rules dealing with how questions are constructed, how the poll is presented, the order of the questions, how large a sample one must do and so on. Based on your sample size, you can know, before the poll is conducted, what your margin of error will be. The higher the margin of error, the more statistically irrelevant the poll becomes (i.e., it is not an accurate reflection of the general population). 
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