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earthside

(6,960 posts)
Fri Oct 12, 2012, 03:19 PM Oct 2012

Too many polls!

We have four registered 'unaffiliated' voters in my house.

We get polled a lot.

Robo polls and personal interview polls -- actually not very many 'push polls'. Most of the polling is from identifiable polling groups/companies.

Here is my question: has anyone ever done any research into the possible consequences of too much polling altering the results?

In other words, is there an "observer effect" on public opinion polling? If there is a movement in some polls, does that tend to cause some people to alter their answers to go along with a trend?

Additionally, I really wonder if some of these polls from companies and/or organizations I have never heard of are reliable, or are they recent concoctions meant to influence other more legitimate polling?

I am not a 'skewed' poll conspiracy theorist, but my instincts tell me that there is something odd this year about the way the polling is conducted and how the results are calculated and released.

Anybody know?

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