If the polling is this wacky, why bother publishing it at all?
Over the weekend, ABC and the Washington Post published the results of a poll that made both operations look like its results were the product of a month-long exercise with a Magic 8-Ball. The way you know it was an embarrassment is the Post story about the poll began by telling us all we should probably ignore it completely.
The Post-ABC poll shows Biden trailing Trump by 10 percentage points at this early stage in the election cycle, although the sizable margin of Trump’s lead in this survey is significantly at odds with other public polls that show the general election contest a virtual dead heat. The difference between this poll and others, as well as the unusual makeup of Trump’s and Biden’s coalitions in this survey, suggest it is probably an outlier.
It was done entirely by phone. What person under, say, 60 answers an unknown call on their phone at this point? And if they left a voicemail to call them back, who would trust it? Basically, they’re getting extremely gullible people (i.e. mostly Trump voters) to respond to the poll.
I think the only way you can do successful polling at this point is focus groups with carefully selected demographics, and I would even be dubious there.
I participated in a few polls in 2020 and…yeah. I would pick them up because I was waiting for important calls. Why tf else would I pick up. I still get these calls sometimes, usually while waiting for a call back for a job.
Even if I did pick up the phone, which I doubt I would, I would think it was a scam.
You guys are answering the unknown caller? Wow.
Why? Like, don’t.
Every time I get a call from an unknown number I let it stop ringing and immediately add it to the block list. I imagine I can’t be the only one that does this.
Being on the job hunt is miserable. Is it a scammer? Is it a bill collector? Is it the job I applied to? They all start the conversation by asking me who I am instead of telling me who they are (you know, the normal thing you do when you are the initiator of the call), so if I pop off on them thinking it’s the bill collector for the 3rd time today with a different number, and it’s the job, I’ve lost myself the opportunity.
You definitely have my sympathies. Best of luck on the job hunt. I hope you find something great.
I was waiting to hear back about a job then and answered a poll call about gambling. I very, very rarely gamble. And when I do it’s like $50 on blackjack or something cuz my friends want to go to the casino here. That was a fun call cuz my answers were like “never”, *rarely", “no”. Lol
Dunno why I felt the need to share. I’m still drunk from my friends birthday party last night I think lol
What if it was the employer calling to see if you gamble?
Sounds like they gave good answers, unless they were applying to a casino.
I’ve answered a poll about food security once when I was in Belgium. They were asking if goes many mean I’d skipped in the last month, if hunger was affecting my studies or work, if u was able to have vegetables or fruits in my diet …
I answered until the end because it just felt sad, I’m privileged and don’t have to worry about these issues but I wanted people working on the issue to have all the support needed.
It should also be said that polls are only responded to by people who a) have the time, and b) have something to say.
B alone is enough to make the respondents select for far more extreme than the average person. A also selects for… people who’ve got nothing else going on.
After watching The Telemarketers, I’m even less inclined to pick up the phone than ever. And it was already at the “almost never” point.
or you know mass texting
Maybe. I’d still wonder if that was a scam and probably not reply.
Seriously a random text from “ABC News” asking for a response? Um, no. Not in a million years. That stuff is for batshit morons who don’t know a . . . ahhhh, right.
Serious: why wouldnt you answer an unknown number?
Because it’s very likely a scam or someone trying to sell me something. What is the advantage of answering one?
I do sometimes get important calls from some gov. office or something like that. As a example, I lost my wallet and a about a week later the office in charged of the found-lost things called to say someone had found it and I could pick it up.
But to be fair I only ever got 1 scam call and most people I know got the same one (Europolice scam last year)
Like, where I live scam/sell calls are just not a thing, so might be regional.
Buy yeah, thanks for the answer, I get you point now.
Europe may be different, but I get a good 12-14 probably scam/spam calls a week here in the U.S. I can tell because they’re never in an area code I’m familiar with or one from a place where I moved away from and don’t know anyone anymore.