Polls and Demographics
Polls and surveys provide feedback on opinions, preferences, and sentiments. There are various polling methods. For example a poll might be passive, meaning it is up to a person to approach the polling mechanism. This could be visiting a web site and deciding whether to participate, or stopping to talk to a pollster on a street corner, or answering a questionnaire that comes in the mail.
Active polling might be a telemarketing calling your home to engage you to answer questions, or having to answer questions to get to the information or other point of interest. For example many web sites will require you to register to reach an article or feature of interest.
Polling generally contains a margin of error, sometimes measurable with a good degree of accuracy, sometimes not. This depends on the type of poll/survey, the sample size, and the population size. Bias is another issue prevalent in polls. A male political pollster working on a street corner may be comfortable only asking someone like himself to stop and take the poll. In this scenario the received answers will likely fall in line with what the pollster himself would provide in answering the questions.
Political polls of course are used for variety of agendas - a politician's popularity, a position on an issue, or even to show negativity about a political candidate. Some of this positioning has to do with the type of questions asked. There are open ended and closed ended questions. Open ended questions allow a person to provide an answer that is relavent and important to themselves. For example, a question may be phrased as "What issue is most important to you." A person could answer anything. Closed ended questions provide a choice of answers to choose from but could force a person into an answer that is not reflective of their true view of an issue. For example a closed ended question might be "Is the president more persuasive when wearing a red tie or a blue tie?" You might not care what color the tie is, or even that you might find wearing a tie less persuasive than wearing a sweater.
Demographics provide insight into the socio-economic, gender, age, ethnicity, and other facts about people. Demographics is a wide subject and can be helpful or confusing. For example a survey about how a person views their retirement benefits will not mean much if the majority of respondents are less than 25 years old. The demographic is that age is 25 or less. At this age some but not likely the majority of respondents of put much thought into their retirement. Read more:
Active polling might be a telemarketing calling your home to engage you to answer questions, or having to answer questions to get to the information or other point of interest. For example many web sites will require you to register to reach an article or feature of interest.
Polling generally contains a margin of error, sometimes measurable with a good degree of accuracy, sometimes not. This depends on the type of poll/survey, the sample size, and the population size. Bias is another issue prevalent in polls. A male political pollster working on a street corner may be comfortable only asking someone like himself to stop and take the poll. In this scenario the received answers will likely fall in line with what the pollster himself would provide in answering the questions.
Political polls of course are used for variety of agendas - a politician's popularity, a position on an issue, or even to show negativity about a political candidate. Some of this positioning has to do with the type of questions asked. There are open ended and closed ended questions. Open ended questions allow a person to provide an answer that is relavent and important to themselves. For example, a question may be phrased as "What issue is most important to you." A person could answer anything. Closed ended questions provide a choice of answers to choose from but could force a person into an answer that is not reflective of their true view of an issue. For example a closed ended question might be "Is the president more persuasive when wearing a red tie or a blue tie?" You might not care what color the tie is, or even that you might find wearing a tie less persuasive than wearing a sweater.
Demographics provide insight into the socio-economic, gender, age, ethnicity, and other facts about people. Demographics is a wide subject and can be helpful or confusing. For example a survey about how a person views their retirement benefits will not mean much if the majority of respondents are less than 25 years old. The demographic is that age is 25 or less. At this age some but not likely the majority of respondents of put much thought into their retirement. Read more: