Selective poll taking

[linazelle]

I got a call last night from a man who said he was collecting information about household usage of the media--viewing patterns,listening habits, etc. He asked me a bunch of questions to see if there were conflicts of interest (such as my working for any media company or a subsidiary--I don't). He stated the respondent must be between 18 and 50 years old. I settled in to start answering questions about my pet peeves with the media and then he says, he needed a male in the household between those ages. My husband was not home so that ended the discussion.

For the first time, I was disappointed that my brain wasn't picked. I've never heard of such selectivity since it's hard enough to even get people to answer these things anyway. I almost suspect that being a black female, and perhaps sounding like one, was really the reason I was disqualified. :shrug:

[WatchWhatISay]

1. Are you sure he was a pollster?

Why would he spend so much time qualifying you if his primary qualification (or a least a major one) is that you be a male?

Please be careful about answering personal questions when you don't know who you are talking to. He could just be looking for females who live alone.

When I was in college I had someone call me saying that he was doing a survey on the sex lives of college coeds. The first few questions asked were quite innocent, not something you'd worry about answering to anyone, and more about college students in genereal. But as they continued, they gradually became more personal and more detailed. Then the "pollster" started giving comments about my answers. That is when I realized what I had gotten myself into, and soon ended the call. I later realized that it could have been any local frat boy or non-student for that matter, and I had just told him quite a bit of detail about my personal life. OK, maybe I WAS in college, but obviously I wasn't too sharp about safety issues.

[izzie]

2. Sounding like a black women?

I never had heard of that till I lived in the South. People kept making me come to a place and one said one day' We Southerns can not tell if you are a white Northern or a black Northern. You all sound alike.It was like a slap in the face to every black person I had ever known plus a shame on Southerns. Made me very un-easy living in the South.Course when whites turned over school buses in the next town I was sure I did not fit.There were children in the buses.I do not like it when they wanted to know that much about me on the phone. I do not think you should either specially if your home alone. I have done polls over the phone but besides asking if I vote I do not recall any other questions but what was on the poll.

[linazelle]

3. Yes there are some small differences in the way some blacks

and whites speak (and some very large differences between others). I think I fit in the first category where there might be slight differences in my speech patterns that would lead somebody to conclude I'm black.

[lutherj]

4. I got a similar call about a week ago and did the poll

They asked for the youngest male over 18 in the household, and started out asking questions about media, where I got my news, etc. It soon became clear that they were working for a specific private water utility that supplies our area. It was a little unclear what the purpose of the poll was, other than to get a sense of their public image.