Have you ever been polled/surveyed?

Wertz

Well with all the electioneering going on, the media is full of polls and surveys saying support has risen for this, fallen for that, that FF are f*cked, and that we're all voting yes to Lisbon2.
Personally I pay very little heed to these polls; Red C, MRBI, etc for the simple fact that I, nor anyone I know, have ever been asked to participate in said polls.
I'm sure they're well conducted by professional people and I'm sure the science behind them is sound but I'd be dubious about who is being asked what and where it is they're being asked it.
I also have to wonder at the motives behind certain polls and whether or not some of them are purposefully biased to find in favour of those who they're conducting the poll/survey on behalf of...
The way I see it, certain party political polls could potentially have the effect of dissuading voters from voting, because they may feel their vote might not count o whatever.

So has anyone here ever been asked their opinion on the street, at their door, on the phone etc?
Online polls (including this one) don't count.
Alternatively do you work in this field and can you assure the public that opinion polls are unbiased and don't look for the "right" answer?

Oh and before someone else throws it in, I polled yore ma last night etc.

I have, a phone poll a few months ago,

Random

Have you ever been polled/surveyed?

Is this a poll / survey?

Ruu_Old

Do you like Beans? Do you like George Wendt? Would you like to see a movie with George Wendt Eating Beans?

I often come across students looking for signatures to impeach various politicians for starting the Iraq war and they ask for my thoughts on the war to which I respond, it is just one big mess.

Wertz

Random wrote: »

Have you ever been polled/surveyed?

Is this a poll / survey?

For the purposes of this thread, it isn't.

Ruu wrote: »

Do you like Beans? Do you like George Wendt? Would you like to see a movie with George Wendt Eating Beans?

I often come across students looking for signatures to impeach various politicians for starting the Iraq war and they ask for my thoughts on the war to which I respond, it is just one big mess.

Fair point Ruu...maybe I should tighten it up a little by asking people to omit nonsense/fun/slapdash marketing polls...I'm talking more of political opinion polls, you know the ones that tell us the greens are up 2 points, fine gael down 3 etc...

dez_warlock

I have surveyed and polled many but have thankfully not been the victim of a polling yet.

TheZohanS

Ruu wrote: »

Do you like Beans? Do you like George Wendt? Would you like to see a movie with George Wendt Eating Beans?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YT5kI3zJFmA

Wertz

dez_warlock wrote: »

I have surveyed and polled many but have thankfully not been the victim of a polling yet.

Of a political nature? If so how do you respond to my fears and suspicions about polls in Ireland and how they are used/abused by the media...

My name is URL

The likes on TNS-MRBI etc are market research companies, it would not be in their interest to skew results.

The media's portrayal of statistics on the other hand...

Wertz

I realise that and they're obviously not going to risk their business by tainting their results in any way, shape or form...but isn't it the case that to get certain results, you only have to ask a certain questions or phrase them in a certain way?

Also I do realise that opinion polls are a snapshot in time of a small fraction of the public...my problem with them is that the transparency of who they're asking, when and where they're asking it (many polls are probably Dublin-centric or at the very least biased toward larger urban areas), if people are randomly chosen, picked from a prescribed list or whatever...hence my poll, to see if there are real people out there who they ask or if it's always the same ones or what.

snollup

never - would be a good chance to vent though. tell them how ****, bad things are/crap the leaders of our country are...:mad:

Wertz

In fairness ranting at someone taking an opinion poll is a bit like giving out to someone at the toll booth about the traffic jams...much better to save that anger and frustration and keep it for your local council canvassers, or perhaps even a hopeful MEP...

Borneo Fnctn

I voted no in the poll. Never have, never will.

Wertz

So according to the poll so far, 14 of you have been polled/surveyed at least once...and yet, only one or two of you can be bothered to post a little more detail about it?
Thanks for the input...
:rolleyes:

carlop

I actually can't remember if I've ever responded to one, but I used to work for a company that did them.

The answers aren't really Dublin-centric, as we would have to find a certain number of respondents from each part of the country and from each age and gender category.

For example, if we had to get 1000 answers, 500 would be male, 500 would be female, maybe 300 would be Dublin, 200 Cork county etc. and 200 would have to be 18-24, 200 25-34 and so on. It would get pretty frustrating as by the end you would have to find someone who was specifically an 18-24 year-old male living in Dublin who was willing to do it, which wasn't easy.

Some of the questions were confusing, but I don't know who commissioned us to do the survey so I can't really say if they were biased. The main problem with it as a form of gauging public opinion though is that it only gets answers from people who are happy to do surveys, and these people are not necessarily evenly spread out throughout all facets of society.

Also, some of the answers I got would be loltastic, for example people would be strongly critical of the government but then say they were highly satisfied with Bertie's performance.

RATM

Just my personal experience of polls.
TNS/MRBI-reliable and conducted in a professional manner
Millward Brown- they'll ring their friends houses if they are stuck for respondents. I know this cause I worked for them once.
Sunday Independent polls (they label it Quantum Research to make it sound like a company has done it but its really an in house poll ). Never trust the poll in the Sindo, firstly its a sample of 500, which gives you a margin of error of +/- 4%, ie a potential swing of 8% which really makes the poll pointless.
Of course they don't tell you that because you don't need to know. Nor do they tell you that none of the calls are truly randomised, they dont ask for age groups, occupations, etc like professional pollsters would. When you see a poll in the Sindo which is conducted by 'Quantam Research' what you are really looking at is a sample of people who live in Dublin 4 & 6 simply because those people are more likely to answer a phone poll about politics.

But OP most polling companies are professional, if they poll an electorate and call an election for one candidate and are then found to have got it completely wrong then their reputation is on the line. They use all sorts of techniques to avoid the 'loaded questions' you talk about and are very meticulous to make sure questions contain as little bias as possible. If not they won't be in business for long as no-one will pay for inaccurate polling.

FearDark

I polled **** ** lastnight

galwayrush

Lots of times on AH.:rolleyes:

slippy wicket

I am regularly polled by red c and have found them quite professional, but they do tend to mix commercial and political questions.
Dont know if this is the norm