How to fool people with BOGUS SURVEYS
“Nine out of ten Americans prefer broccoli to hamburgers”
Whoa! Where did these results come from?
It all depends of who conducted the survey? Who and how many people were surveyed? How were questions phrased?
Mr. Burns explains how you too can master the dark art of conducting bogus surveys to get whatever results you want.
Who is paying to conduct the survey? What do they want the survey results to be?
The Broccoli vs Hamburger was paid for by the Mr. Burns Broccoli Farms.
What questions to ask? Structure your questions so that the answer is obvious.
Would you prefer to eat fresh broccoli or a cold, soggy hamburger which may have contaminated meat?
How many people should you survey? Choose a small group of hand picked people to survey.
The Broccoli vs Hamburger survey could be conducted with a group of vegetarians.
Where should you conduct the survey?
The Broccoli vs Hamburger survey was conducted at a weight loss clinic.
When was the survey conducted?
This survey was conducted after an outbreak of food poisoning caused by contaminated meat.
That’s how you get the survey results you want: Nine out of ten Americans prefer broccoli to hamburgers. (It turns out the tenth survey taker did not understand English and was confused. Otherwise the results would be 100% of people prefer broccoli).
How to design a BOGUS SURVEY
Test your skills
“Biden’s resistance to cease-fire could alienate youth voters in 2024” – Washington Post
“conversations with more than a dozen students here (U. Mich.) underscore that Biden’s handling of the war threatens to diminish enthusiasm for him among young voters ahead of the 2024 election. . . . [A] number of liberal students here expressed openness to third-party candidates and frustration with a likely Trump-Biden rematch.“
“I was expecting the Post to cite to a reputable poll—but was prepared for a janky internet survey where respondents earn free gift cards for answering online questions. But the source of the Post’s story was inferior to a gift-card scam survey.
Uh, okay. So, the Post spoke with “more than a dozen students” (13?) about Biden and found that “a number”—3? 5?—were “open” to third-party candidates. That level of imprecision as the predicate for a headline story is worse than reckless—it is intentionally misleading. In the Post’s own telling, “some” of the students were not open to third-party candidates. What was the breakdown? The Post chose to omit that detail.” – Robert Hubbell in Today’s Edition Newsletter
TakeAway: Don’t fall for bogus survey results.
Deepak
DemLabs
Image credit: Mr Burns from The Simpsons
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Reposted from Democracy Labs with permission.