Loaded opinion polls and bias.

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**Tigurius**

What examples of hilarious bias have you seen recently with opinions polls and surveys?

**Ouze**

This wasn't super recent, but is the best example I have seen.

With all 120% of respondents reporting!

**curran12**

Not so much bias, but this one makes the analyst I was in college weep:

http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-1-10-americans-html-std-study-finds-20140304,0,1188415.story#axzz2v1X0Ct00

I'm sure we've seen this one. "11% of Americans think HTTP is an STD" and then we all got a big "OMG FAITH IN HUMANITY LOST" angerfest. But let's just look at the quality of this study:

Total people polled - 2,392.
Total US population - ~313,900,000

So, already we're looking at a sample size that is 0.000007% of the population. And of course only 10% of that said that, so 0.0000007% of people think that. But these hucksters and news-idiots behind these polls only care about the hits and headlines, so it's back up to "10%".

It's painful.

**AlmightyWalrus**

"How much do you hate..." with the options "Yes" and "No"? Well played.

**Tigurius**

Yeah, I tried my best

As much derp as feasibly possible.

**Dreadclaw69**

How about this?

**Kilkrazy**

curran12 wrote:
Not so much bias, but this one makes the analyst I was in college weep:

http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-1-10-americans-html-std-study-finds-20140304,0,1188415.story#axzz2v1X0Ct00

I'm sure we've seen this one. "11% of Americans think HTTP is an STD" and then we all got a big "OMG FAITH IN HUMANITY LOST" angerfest. But let's just look at the quality of this study:

Total people polled - 2,392.
Total US population - ~313,900,000

So, already we're looking at a sample size that is 0.000007% of the population. And of course only 10% of that said that, so 0.0000007% of people think that. But these hucksters and news-idiots behind these polls only care about the hits and headlines, so it's back up to "10%".

It's painful.

Samples can be surprisingly small and still be valid for statistical purposes. IDK what the correct sample size for the USA would be. Someone can look it up or calculate it.

**dogma**

Kilkrazy wrote:

Samples can be surprisingly small and still be valid for statistical purposes. IDK what the correct sample size for the USA would be. Someone can look it up or calculate it.

That depends on what you want your confidence interval to be, and what method of analysis you're using.

Generally speaking surveys with lower CIs cost more money and take more time, which makes news organizations unlikely to commission them; especially given most people don't know what a CI is.

**Frazzled**

True dat

**Iron_Captain**

Like all awesome people, I think this poll is utter rubbish. Only a complete fool would disagree with me.

**Ahtman**

dogma wrote:
especially given most people don't know what a CI is.

It is a criminal that gives information to the police, of course.