… Three out of four Americans perceive polling to be biased. This is the case across all demographic subgroups with little variance. (Q15A) Americans particularly distrust the results of polls from candidates, political parties and automated voice recording firms, but news media polls don’t inspire widespread trust, either. (Q17A)
While most Americans think polls are biased, a very small percentage think that polls are biased toward conservatives; a slightly larger percentage believe they are biased toward liberals; and a significant majority (68%) just think they’re biased in some way. (Q15B)
Americans have strongly divergent views on the level of trust they place in public polling data: Large percentages of Americans distrust the data they see, regardless of the source of the poll. Sources that fare the best tend to have no perceived agenda: academic centers and nonpartisan foundations. News media and polling companies fall into the middle, while candidates, political parties and voice-automated polling operations are deeply distrusted. (Q17A-B) [cont.]
Elizabeth Wilner, Kantar