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  • #2156800

    If asked to take a political poll, do you lie?

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    by maxwell edison ·

    I’ve been asked to take no fewer than a half-dozen political polls over the past two weeks. Without exception, I’ve lied on all questions. I hate polls. I especially hate polls that are made up to make news. I do everything I can do discredit them.

    What do you do?

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    • #2808555

      I talk their ears off.

      by boxfiddler ·

      In reply to If asked to take a political poll, do you lie?

      Give them ambiguous answers. Make them work to figure out how to fit my answer into their tidy little bullsh*t cubbyhole for a response.

      They wanna know what I think? Whatever is on their ‘acceptable response list’ ain’t gonna cover it.

      typical grammar/typo edit

      • #2808549

        Waste their time

        by maxwell edison ·

        In reply to I talk their ears off.

        good strategy

        • #2808547

          I’d deal

          by boxfiddler ·

          In reply to Waste their time

          in inane blather, but they just hang up. 🙁

        • #2806189

          Good reason for that

          by oz_media ·

          In reply to I’d deal

          They don’t want to waste their time anymore than you feel they are wasting your time.

          Believe me, if you are not interested and are polite about it, they will move on, they have better things to do than force you to lie to them.

      • #2806234

        Why

        by oz_media ·

        In reply to I talk their ears off.

        I have to wonder why you think that wasting someones time is so amusing, and why you feel the person calling you is the right person to complain about?

        I am sure that people don’t want to hear from you at work, there may be clients that just don’t want to deal with you but they do, just as you have favorite and not so favorite people in your day to day life too.

        Do you purposely waste their time too or do you afford them SOME respect and simply move on?

        I just don’t get the big issue of being too cool to speak with telemarketers.

        They, just as you or I, have been employed to conduct a task. It is not their concept, they do not write the lists, dial the numbers (usually as autodialers do it now)and don’t make up the questions to ask you, they are just trying to pay their bills without becoming the next bum, scamming yoru welfare system.

        They have a job to do, ifg you’re not interested or don’t have time, fair enough, say so and hang up. Wasting their time or lieing to them is exactly WHY these polls are so inaccurate, useless and laughed at.

        If yuo are so inept that yuo can’t even deal with a telemarketer in a professional manner, then it is no wonder so many people are so useless on a social level unless within their circle.

        • #2808134

          They call me up to find out what I think.

          by boxfiddler ·

          In reply to Why

          None of the answers I’m offered fit what I think. If they want to know what I think, they can put up with knowing what I think, which in fact is sometimes ambiguous, sometimes unclear, and never within the cubby hole I’m allowed as an answer.

          Don’t have to deal with telemarketers. No Call Lists.

        • #2807920

          So take the middle ground

          by oz_media ·

          In reply to They call me up to find out what I think.

          All polls, especially election polls have an ‘unsure’ or ‘uncomitted’ answer.

          Making yuo your own or offerign descritopns ot someone who is singing LA LA LA the whole time you are talking is not so effective, even if you somehow find it amusing.

          Ex. Boxy, do you feel Obama has the strength to end the war in Iraq without losing pride for America?
          1 is yes I feel very confident he can, 10 is not at all.

          So 5 would be a non comittal answer (you ca also request to skip or nto answer any question you don’t like), you didn’t like the question so you can say 5, meaning you don’ tfall on either side. fine and dandy.

          To say, “well, that’s not really an accurate question because its not such a matter of losing pride but further endangering ourselves and opening ourselves up to further attacks……blah blah blah, the caller hears ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzuntil you stop talking and then says, so would that be closer to a 1 or a 10?

          Very clever indeed. How crafty.

          “Sorry, thanks for calling but I am not willing to spend time discussing my political opinions on the phone.”

          This will result in, okay, thansk for your time, have a good evening.

          End of call, nobody’s time is watsed and your life is not horrendously invaded anymore.

          There are effective ways of dealing with people and there are ways of simply wasting your and the other persons time for no reason at all expcept to be a pr1ck.

          Your name will be on the recall list for that party for a long time to come.

          As for NO call lists, don’t kid yourself. National DNC lists work to some extene and are one thing, but as 1000’s of companies have now been allowed to buy lists that are legally sold to them and are NOT included in the NDNC list, pissing off a telemarketer can wind you up in a hellhole of ongoing calls.

          They MSt remove you from THEIR list, but once someone throws you on a private clal list, it can be sold to a lot of companies each day, they will all take you off the list one by one, but those lists rotate on a daily basis, if not every other day and just float around call centres like spam.

          They’ll soon find out that the DNC list was a waste if they go and offer other laws to work around it. They used to allow private sale of lists in Canada but it has almost come to a stop now as it is simply not a money maker for the marketing company anymore.

          I honestly thought you’d be above choosing the latter.

        • #2807116

          You assume

          by boxfiddler ·

          In reply to So take the middle ground

          that poll questions offer answers of the sliding scall variety.
          You also assume that I will settle for less than what I think in relation to the politics, and politicians who influence my daily fare.
          I won’t.
          I only rarely ‘settle for less’ in anything.

    • #2808554

      Hang up.

      by santeewelding ·

      In reply to If asked to take a political poll, do you lie?

      .

      • #2808550

        Hello . . . . .Hello . . . . .Hello. . . . .

        by maxwell edison ·

        In reply to Hang up.

        …..anyone there? Hello. ….

    • #2808553

      I’m with you.

      by captbilly1eye ·

      In reply to If asked to take a political poll, do you lie?

      It is seldom that I answer polls accurately or completely honestly.
      I find myself either answering in a way I think the questions appear to [i]want[/i] me to answer or I answer in a way that I think will most greatly skew the results – specially if it is a political or economy related poll.
      I strongly dislike and resent the language used in most polls in the way they do a poor job of hiding an agenda. The bias of many polls is all too obvious.
      If the poll is work related and comes from someone within the company, I will try to answer accurately but I often slip toward saying what they want to hear.
      Most polling is done by companies trying to turn a profit. By the nature of their business and the clients they work for, the true purpose of the poll turns out not to be an accurate cross-section or representation but rather a self-serving reinforcement of what they have already concluded or believe.
      .

    • #2806419

      It’s not lying, it’s making the best use of your vote

      by tony hopkinson ·

      In reply to If asked to take a political poll, do you lie?

      Just like referendums they tend to weight the questions, to get the answer they want. I feel no remorse about weighting my answers.

      I’ve told labour pollers, that I’ll never vote for the party again, and tories, that I’m uncomfortable with their whole policy set.

      Neither a lie when I said it.

      Liberals I just tell to p1ss off, as their policies change more often than my mind and I can’t be arsed to figure out what I should / could say anyway.

    • #2806406

      No, I refuse to take them.

      by charliespencer ·

      In reply to If asked to take a political poll, do you lie?

      I tell the caller, “I would prefer not to participate. Thank you, and have a nice evening.” After that, the handset is headed straight for the cradle.

      Too many ‘polls’ turn out to be ‘push polls’. I’m not willing to bother with a call long enough to determine if it’s an independent poll or just propaganda.

      • #2806185

        No problem then

        by oz_media ·

        In reply to No, I refuse to take them.

        You are polite, you are not interested, you hang up.
        You have also done the caller a favour, they don’t want to waste time with people who are going to waste their time or offer stupid answers, there are enough people out there that are happy to answer pollsters, that’s who they are looking for, not you.

        the people who waste their time or just rudely hangup without saying anything, are the people who get listed for daily callbac, somtimes several times a day. that list is eventually sold to another sales outfit who calls you at dinner time and tries to sell you something. Pi$$ THEM off and befor eyou know it ,you are on a national hit list of targets to sell.

        I’ve seen it, people get listed for several calls a day because they are rude to telemarketers, and they think THEY are being the clever ones, then post here complaining about the number of calls they get.

        LOL. some people’s kids just don’t get it.

    • #2806383

      I’ve never participated in a political poll.

      by ontheropes ·

      In reply to If asked to take a political poll, do you lie?

      I’ll make it a point to lie my ass off if I’m ever asked. Sounds like fun.

    • #2806376

      well

      by jaqui ·

      In reply to If asked to take a political poll, do you lie?

      my response to any political question when coming up on elections:

      to bad, I do not discuss politics with anyone before an election.

    • #2806371

      Sorry my mom and dad aren’t home right now ;)

      by jiminpa ·

      In reply to If asked to take a political poll, do you lie?

      .

    • #2806358

      As someone who has worked for a pollster….

      by jamesrl ·

      In reply to If asked to take a political poll, do you lie?

      I did a summer internship during university for a political polling firm. I was not on the phones, I was a poll co-ordinator – monitoring the polling process from inception to completion.

      Like anything else, there are good polling firms and bad ones. The good ones take pains to be as scientific and neutral as possible. The bad ones show their biases on their sleeves, and their data is meaningless and useless.

      Good pollsters do not show any bias at all. They have to act as if they don’t know who is sponsoring the polls. The people paying them may ask that certain information is discovered, but a good pollster takes care of how they ask.

      As a pollster, the only thing we lied about was the name of our company, as if we told the truth, it would bias the poll (my company was know to be the pollsters for the Conservatives).

      There are those asking questions, who don’t ask the questions properly. I had some of them fired in my role -I randomly monitored polling calls, and if I thought the caller was asking in a biased way, they were warned, if they continued, they were fired and their samples thrown out. Not every pollster has that much integrity though.

      Each repondents answers are reviewed for completeness. If there is a hint that they aren’t being serious, the response is thrown out.

      Pollsters usually oversample – if they need 1500 samples, they will gather 1800 and throw out any suspect ones. They also throw some out in the process of making the sample match the demographic.

      I don’t think pollsters are evil, but there are evil pollsters.

      Personally I think the one question thats it is obvious people lie about is voting intention. Not the choice of who they will vote for, but if they will actually cast a ballot. If the polls were correct (in other words if people told the truth), then turnout would be about 80%.

      Why do you hate polls?

      James

      • #2806314

        Why do i hate polls?

        by maxwell edison ·

        In reply to As someone who has worked for a pollster….

        Because all too often, polls ask leading questions, and are really intended to sway opinion, not report on public opinion; or polls are made-up to MAKE news, instead of being reported AS news (ABC News poll, conducted by ABC, and reported by ABC to fill time on their news shows); or polls are used to influence voter turnout, giving a false impression of true voter support; etc.

        • #2806298

          Polls that ask leading questions….

          by jamesrl ·

          In reply to Why do i hate polls?

          ….Are not scientific. And I have as much objection to them as anyone.

          In fact, I think that news organizations should always provide the question verbatim that was asked.

          Some questions should always be asked as open ended – for example – what is the most important issue facing the country today. That should not have a list for you to chose from, they should take your answer verbatim and then code it later. Thats too much analysis for an overnight poll, but it is much more meaningfull.

          In Canada we have cut offs – not allowed to publish results X days before the election so as to not influence turnout.

          As to true voter support – see lying. How can you provide accurate information if people lie.

          James

        • #2806291

          Another reason I hate polls

          by maxwell edison ·

          In reply to Polls that ask leading questions….

          Although candidates use polls to decide where to focus their efforts (in the case of a presidential election, for example, to decide whether to campaign and spend money in Ohio or Texas), when it comes to public consumption, they serve absolutely no purpose. Whoever is [i]ahead in the polls[/i] on election day, will win the election. That’s the only one that matters.

          Some people might suggest that legislators use polls to gauge public opinion on issues. Well, they shouldn’t do that. They were elected to represent their constituents, and act according to their best judgment, their campaign promises, or their underlying principle.

          Polls are becoming more and more like reporting on a football game. But nothing matters other than the final score. It’s simply a waste of time to conduct them; it’s a waste of time to participate in them; and it’s a waste of time to listen to them.

          But let me challenge myself.

          Have polls been used, in any way whatsoever, for the sole purpose of discrediting the current administration? If all’s fair in love, war, and politics, are polls sometimes used as ammunition?

          The answer is yes – another reason I hate polls.

        • #2806259

          Who is to blame, the pollsters or those who use polls

          by jamesrl ·

          In reply to Another reason I hate polls

          I’ve been involved in polling, both during elections and outside elections.

          One of the real political purposes of polling is tracking. It doesn’t need to be used to direct policy to be of use. If you track the top 5 issues, and one of them dropp off the list, you can stop issuing press releases and worrying about developing new policies.

          Good politicians pay attention to polls, but don’t live slavishly by them. Often they are sued to gauge reaction, and gauge how well the politicans are communicating.

          Good use of polls also means understanding that polls reflect a snap shot in time, and two polls (given the margins of error) are not enough to establish a trend – three or more are needed.

          Polling and election day is a double edged sword. If Obama is comfortably ahead in the polls prior to election day, some of his supporters will become complacent and stay home.

          If anyone created a poll for the sole purpose of discrediting the current administration, as someone familiar with the principles of scientific polling, I would question the bias inherent in that idea. Unbiased polls ask questions, not feed answers, and are best done when the questions themselves don’t lead anyone in any direction.

          James

        • #2806251

          You’ve commented several times on. . . . .

          by maxwell edison ·

          In reply to Who is to blame, the pollsters or those who use polls

          ….[i]scientific and unbiased[/i] polls, and that seems to be your focus. My focus, on the other hand, is all the rest of them. Are you suggesting there are no junk polls? From my perspective, that defines the majority of them.

        • #2806240

          Not at all

          by jamesrl ·

          In reply to You’ve commented several times on. . . . .

          Of course there are junk polls. Many candidates think they don’t need to spend the bucks to pay a scientific pollster and think they can do it themselves. These are junk polls. The questions are biased and their sampling methods (who gets called, how many) are suspect.

          Any of the major firms, Harris, Zogby at least try to use a scientific method, but may be influenced by the client. I’ve read questions from some of them I knew were wrong, and I have all of a few months experience. But in most publications, you don’t even see the questions.

          I would bet if you got 5 calls in the last month, 1 might be from a legit pollster, and 4 were from canvassers disguised as pollsters, or junk pollsters.

          James

      • #2806297

        “Throw away any suspect ones”

        by tony hopkinson ·

        In reply to As someone who has worked for a pollster….

        They wouldn’t be the ones that show something they didn’t want to would they ?

        No surely not……

        Ridiculous idea, Tony…

        Would never happen ….

        I mean people who play with statistics manipulating them for a particular outcome?

        Who would believe that?

        • #2806263

          Again bad pollsters might

          by jamesrl ·

          In reply to “Throw away any suspect ones”

          The pollsters I worked with all had higher degrees (Masters/PHDs) with some exposure to statistical measurement and research. They felt themselves professionals. They tried their best to make sure accuracy was as close as possible.

          Not all pollsters were as rigourous.

          James

    • #2806351

      Me No Talkee English

      by mrtreverj ·

      In reply to If asked to take a political poll, do you lie?

      I got 5 campaign calls this SUNDAY… a day of rest and relaxation and they cannot leave me alone. I decided after the second that i would start saying stupid statements in Spanglish (broken English) and then near the end of the “conversation” make comments about “losing” my green card and asking for a replacement, and finally ending by swearing. It seems to end the calls and create a feeling of self-satisfaction inside of me!

    • #2806340

      Slowly take poll

      by jdclyde ·

      In reply to If asked to take a political poll, do you lie?

      and then near the end, bail.

      Everything you answered has to get thrown out (if it is a “real” poll), giving an even bigger waste of their time.

      B-)

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcFfl8VZ1vY

      • #2806337

        You know lately my streaming video…

        by jiminpa ·

        In reply to Slowly take poll

        has been terribly slow here at work… Maybe I should place a help desk call.

        Hello helpdesk? Yes I am having trouble getting YouTube to load properly :^0

        • #2806243

          If you place the call correctly

          by jdclyde ·

          In reply to You know lately my streaming video…

          “Yes, helpdesk? I have the best joke files to share with you, but will need you to check out my connection first as I seem to be having issues with streaming content.”

          B-)

          All they will have to do is check out a few of my links, and you will quickly have network prioritization! ;\

    • #2806310

      Either answer honestly, or say I have not got time to answer

      by delbertpgh ·

      In reply to If asked to take a political poll, do you lie?

      The public space gets filled up with too many lies already. Why add to the false information?

      • #2806306

        Rephrase your question, and you have my answer

        by maxwell edison ·

        In reply to Either answer honestly, or say I have not got time to answer

        Since the public space gets filled up with too many lies already when it comes to political polls, what’s the point in taking them seriously?

        • #2806236

          I disagree with your premise

          by delbertpgh ·

          In reply to Rephrase your question, and you have my answer

          I don’t believe most polls are products of marketers who are trying to change people’s attitudes. I believe that most are trying to accurately report on what the attitudes are. I’ve had one poller who replied to some of my responses with arguments that begin, “Well, don’t you think that…” That kind of poll is obviously fake. Likewise, if the DailyKos or FreeRepublic reports some poll and it shows their favored boy is further ahead than any other poll does, then I know I’m looking at at junk, designed to cheer up their base readership. But most polls don’t do that, and I see no reason to believe ABC’s poll (your example) does that.

    • #2806308

      Simple

      by tig2 ·

      In reply to If asked to take a political poll, do you lie?

      I refuse to take them.

      We’ve had dozens of calls from various campaigns over the past month. Both the SO and I tell whoever is calling that our vote is private and therefore none of their business. If they are persistent, I explore my inner b*tch for them.

      Last I checked, we have the right to a private vote in this country. I intend to uphold that right. That means that my private vote is my private business. The SO and I don’t discuss how we intend to vote. When we DO have any discussion, it is about the issues. Period. I respect his privacy and he respects mine.

      Anyone who makes a decision to vote or not or how they will vote based on a poll is kidding themselves. The polls are wrong. If you want to see a real impact, get your tail to your polling place tomorrow and VOTE. Earn the right to complain about the outcome! (Assuming that you don’t like the outcome, of course…)

      • #2806255

        The polls aren’t necessarily wrong…..

        by jamesrl ·

        In reply to Simple

        …for one they are a snapshot in time – and things change. A poll taken last week doesn’t reflect McCain’s recent surge. And pollsters sample everyone, and don’t reflect that some groups are more likely than others to actually make it to the polls.

        You have the right not to answer, or to answer, as you have free speech.

        Callers from a campaign should NOT be confused with pollsters. They aren’t unbiased. They have a purpose – to ID supporters and people who haven’t ruled their candidate out – thats a different purpose and it affects what they say and how they say it. I’ve worked with lots of “canvassers” and their results are notoriously optimistic, much more so than public opinion researchers.

        The canvasser wants to find supporters, and make sure on election day they get out to vote.

        James

        • #2806252

          Good point, James

          by tig2 ·

          In reply to The polls aren’t necessarily wrong…..

          And I really couldn’t tell you from one call to the next what the goals of the caller were. I would guess that what I have gotten recently has been a blend of the two.

          There has been quite a bit of hand wringing and hair pulling of late because journalists were told here that they had to stay a certain distance from the polling places. The journalist’s contention has been that their exit polls are less accurate the further they are from the building exits. I am not altogether certain that I agree with that contention. If I were inclined to share with someone else how I voted, I would be of that inclination ten feet from the door and 25 feet from the door.

          I remember when Regan was first elected. California still had three or four more voting hours when the race was declared. Many people didn’t bother to vote at all that year because they felt that there was no point to it. That was a problem because the Presidential race wasn’t the only thing on the ballot. I have disliked exit polls and virtually any other polling since then.

          I have no doubt that there are ethical pollsters out there. I believe that there are ethical canvassers out there. But I decided long ago that since there is little way to tell the ethical ones from the unethical ones, I just don’t answer any of them and retain my right to a private vote.

    • #2806303

      So .. McCain will win tomorrow ?

      by highlander718 ·

      In reply to If asked to take a political poll, do you lie?

      By looking here, if I make a quick generalization, comes out the polls out there are not to be trusted. (at least half of you here employ some deceiving stratagem :-))

      well, I honestly think, these polls take in consideration the 3-4% of pranksters 😉

      • #2806238

        Just keep in mind

        by jdclyde ·

        In reply to So .. McCain will win tomorrow ?

        the polls ALWAYS show Democrats in the lead, and always by a wider margin than reality dictates.

        Don’t believe any of it until you hear that concession speech.

        • #2806230

          Oh really

          by jamesrl ·

          In reply to Just keep in mind

          The last CNN/Gallup poll of the 2004 election showed Bush ahead by 2 %. Guess what percentage Bush won by….go ahead guess.

          James

        • #2806178

          3%? ?:|

          by captbilly1eye ·

          In reply to Oh really

          W won with over 3 million more of the popular vote.

          Although, I remember many other polls had Kerry up by 2 – 3 percentage points just prior to the election (Zogby for one).

    • #2806288

      I don’t participate in polls

      by tonythetiger ·

      In reply to If asked to take a political poll, do you lie?

      All they are is an attempt to tell the stupid how to vote. Sadly, much of the time, it’s successful.

    • #2806237

      I don’t take polls.

      by oz_media ·

      In reply to If asked to take a political poll, do you lie?

      1st, if they have my number I want to know how and why.

      In my case, it is not as easy as you may think, if someone has my number they have obtained it through someone I know, I want to know who and then I want to find out why that person gave up my number.

      If they call on my cell phone, that’s illegal and I just remind them and they hang up.

      Other than that, I would probably play along if I was in the mood, can always have fun playing mind games with a telemarketer, but I also have respect for them, having managed hudreds of them and understanding that they are simply making money no different than anyone lese here, I don’t think many of your jobs are worthwhile and justified either.

      So I think it would be 50/50, someone doint their job WELL would get my respect. Someone playing the game, would have the tables turned pretty quickly and would probably end up asking me to end the call.

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