Assess The Validity Of A Poll Essay

Polling is something that has been intertwined with politics for the nearly a 100 years, and has grown tremendously in recent years. Politicians use these polls to gauge public opinion, and are supposed to be used to help them know what their constituents want. However, many believe that these polls are used by politicians simply as a way to stay in office, flip-flopping on positions as opinion changes. While both of these arguments hold some weight, polling is a lot more complicated than people think, and even more so once one has actually been employed by a research institution. A lot of factors go into determining the legitimacy of a poll, therefore to truly gain knowledge from a poll, one must first have knowledge of how to find out what …show more content…
As a surveyor at Fort Hays State University’s Docking Institute, I know what really happens during the process of getting information for a poll. Some aspects of a poll that become apparent once being surveyor are that people don’t always tell the truth on surveys and often rush through, answering questions as quickly as possible. This means that a lot of what these people are saying, they haven’t thought about before answering, so their opinions might not be what they would be if they had thought more before answering. Therefore, when looking at the error margin, keep in mind these more subtle features of surveying that can affect a poll. So while polls can help people gain an understanding of how across the country feel about different issues, they can also be misleading if they are not conducted in a scientific manner. This means that everything presented previously must be taken into account when conducting a survey, as well as factors such as the possibility of respondents lying on surveys. Thus, while there seems to be a lot of aspects that go into making a legitimate poll, if people know the basic things to look for in a scientific poll, then they will be able to reap the benefits that these polls