Most political polling these days is seriously skewed. But the problems with polling aren’t oversamples of partisans bending results to one side’s preferred perspective — the problem is that Americans are increasingly changing the way they communicate. Traditionally, pollsters have gauged voter or consumer opinions by calling their targets at […] Read more »
Customer Surveys Are Here To Stay. Suggestions For Improvement?
… Businesses have a powerful incentive to keep the customer surveys popping up. While demographic and purchase data tell a company who, what, when and where, surveys can tell a business “why” — and that’s valuable information. “You’re always going to want to understand the consumer psychology: why are people […] Read more »
Merv Field at 93: A Tribute to California’s ‘Swami’
Mervin Field, a pioneer in using non-partisan public opinion research to analyze and interpret politics, will be feted, honored and gushed over by friends, colleagues and neighbors on his Marin County hometown turf tonight. … For many years, California political reporters were pestered and harassed by campaign operatives (and, in […] Read more »
Polls Show Low Obama Approval Ratings – But Is He Really Unpopular?
According to several polls, President Obama’s approval rating since the beginning of this year has been under water – with more people disapproving than approving of the president’s performance by margins of -1 to -14 percentage points. Given this “unpopularity,” pundits presume that the president will be a drag on […] Read more »
Cash-For-Polls Puzzles India Investors as Modi Lead Widens
The pioneer of political opinion polls in India says he has good reason not to trust them: he has been asked to rig them on more than 10 occasions over the past two decades in return for envelopes of cash. N. Bhaskara Rao, who has conducted surveys for Robert F. […] Read more »
Beware sloppiness when reporting on surveys
There is an old saying that figures don’t lie but liars figure. That’s a good thing to keep in mind when examining how some companies market the results of surveys. OK, perhaps lying is too strong a term, but I’ve seen too many press releases that promote the results of […] Read more »