My opinion is worth more than yours.
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It’s not inherently worth more than yours. Moreover, it’s not worth more than yours unless you are a retired, middle-aged man, married, with no children under the age of 18 living at home. If you are, then your opinions about matters such as kitchen cleaning agents and Jack Layton, Gilles Duceppe and Michael Ignatieff’s positions on keeping the Harper government in power are extremely important and yours, unless you agree with me, only matter 19 times out of 20.
The reason that I have become so influential is that I take the time to answer telephone polls. I used to do it for professional reasons: I wanted to see how they were conducted. I do it now because I know that it makes me mighty. I am a demographic.
Public opinion pollsters like to conduct random polls and there was a time, say 20 years ago, when they could do so fairly successfully. There were always problems, but now the problems are very serious.
There are two big ones. First, people make no distinction between pollsters and telemarketers. It’s quite possible that they are right to ignore the distinction. Being asked which detergent you prefer and being sold storm windows is pretty much the same, and both groups phone you when you would rather being doing something else. Since you would normally rather be doing anything else than talking to someone you don’t know on the telephone about Brillo pads or new eavestroughs, that pretty much rules out anyone who calls.
A second problem is the ubiquity of cell phones. There is a whole group of people – we call them young people – who don’t use landlines. They don’t vote either, so it is basically pointless to ask their opinions about politics, but theoretically it is necessary to include them in surveys. They do spend money, though, and that is where the survey companies’ real interests lie, anyway.
Instead of random surveys, then, polling companies often substitute structured surveys. Make sure that your survey includes people who mirror the society as a whole. If it does, the results of the attitudinal survey will come close as well.
At the end of yesterday’s survey, which was from one of the most important national firms, the interviewer asked me if I would be prepared to be called again and if I would be interested in filling out on-line surveys. Then she tantalized me with the Big Prize. She asked if I would be willing to participate in focus groups. That meant that I wouldn’t just be one of 1350 people whose opinions were accurate plus or minus three percent 19 times out of 20. I would be one of 15 people or so who exercise real power. I felt a real stab of regret when I had to say that neither I nor anyone in my family suffered from the disease she mentioned was the subject of one they were holding. Maybe I’ll be luckier next time.
However, middle-aged, retired, married men with no children under the age of 18 living with you out there. Play golf, do your crossword puzzle, walk hand-in-hand with your vis-à-vis on white sandy beaches. Keep your opinions to yourself.
When people want to know what you think about SOS pads or Jack Layton, they will come to me.
The reason that I have become so influential is that I take the time to answer telephone polls. I used to do it for professional reasons: I wanted to see how they were conducted. I do it now because I know that it makes me mighty. I am a demographic.
Public opinion pollsters like to conduct random polls and there was a time, say 20 years ago, when they could do so fairly successfully. There were always problems, but now the problems are very serious.
There are two big ones. First, people make no distinction between pollsters and telemarketers. It’s quite possible that they are right to ignore the distinction. Being asked which detergent you prefer and being sold storm windows is pretty much the same, and both groups phone you when you would rather being doing something else. Since you would normally rather be doing anything else than talking to someone you don’t know on the telephone about Brillo pads or new eavestroughs, that pretty much rules out anyone who calls.
A second problem is the ubiquity of cell phones. There is a whole group of people – we call them young people – who don’t use landlines. They don’t vote either, so it is basically pointless to ask their opinions about politics, but theoretically it is necessary to include them in surveys. They do spend money, though, and that is where the survey companies’ real interests lie, anyway.
Instead of random surveys, then, polling companies often substitute structured surveys. Make sure that your survey includes people who mirror the society as a whole. If it does, the results of the attitudinal survey will come close as well.
At the end of yesterday’s survey, which was from one of the most important national firms, the interviewer asked me if I would be prepared to be called again and if I would be interested in filling out on-line surveys. Then she tantalized me with the Big Prize. She asked if I would be willing to participate in focus groups. That meant that I wouldn’t just be one of 1350 people whose opinions were accurate plus or minus three percent 19 times out of 20. I would be one of 15 people or so who exercise real power. I felt a real stab of regret when I had to say that neither I nor anyone in my family suffered from the disease she mentioned was the subject of one they were holding. Maybe I’ll be luckier next time.
However, middle-aged, retired, married men with no children under the age of 18 living with you out there. Play golf, do your crossword puzzle, walk hand-in-hand with your vis-à-vis on white sandy beaches. Keep your opinions to yourself.
When people want to know what you think about SOS pads or Jack Layton, they will come to me.
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