In the U.S., average pct. who refuse to participate when approached in a poll : 70 percent
SEVENTY PERCENT DON'T PARTICIPATE IN THIS NONSENSE.
But every day you are bombarded with the latest numbers, which are little more than chits bet in a game of spin and counterspin, of manipulating expectations and buzz, of creating opinions where yesterday there were none.
All of the candidates also participate in this, and for that they are all guilty. And foolish, since almost all of them get whiplash from their own attempts at spin.
Now while some clever type from a university department prepares to explain why the 70 percent who hang up or refuse to stop on the street actually have the same opinions in the same proportions as the 30 percent who play along, read this:
http://www.retropoll.org/polling_fraud.htmThe Public Opinion Polling Fraud
from Z Magazine
by Marc Sapir and Mickey Huff
(...)
Like the corporate polls we buy phone lists from a company which randomly generates and sells these lists for surveys and marketing purposes. Of the several hundred Americans one of us (Marc) personally spoke with, about 25-30% agreed to answer the questions. The others either declined or hung up. This isn't surprising. It is commonly accepted in public opinion research that in random samples usually 70% or more of those contacted will refuse to participate. With that single act, the refusers destroy the claim that the poll sampled people randomly. The results of any poll can honestly reflect the views of the general population only if the 70% who refuse to talk have nearly identical views to those who agree to be polled. If there are significant differences, the results can not be said to equate to public opinion.
Polls usually report out a statistical "margin of error" for their results. The margin of error that polls report depends not upon the number of people called but upon the number who responded, the sample size. They usually report a margin of error of about 3% for a sample size of 1000. But this margin of error statistic that makes polls look highly accurate is, in essence, a cover to hide the 70% who refused to participate. Even if 99% refused to participate and we had to speak to 100,000 people to find 1,000 who would talk with us, the margin of error statistic would still be reported as the same 3%. It would be hiding the problem of non-responders. So the margin of error statistic is not only inappropriate in this circumstance; it suggests a level of certainty that is fraudulent.
While it is always possible that those refusing have similar views to those agreeing to be polled, Retro Poll has found evidence to the contrary. When we asked over a thousand people, "would you take a few minutes to respond to a poll on the impact of the war on terrorism on the rights of the American people", one woman responded: "You wouldn't want to hear our view on that. People wouldn't like what we think."
"That's ok", we said, "your views are important; they should be counted and reported as part of the democratic process. We want your opinion to count." "No," the woman said insistently. "We're against the war the way they did it. We think they should just bomb all of them, not send our troops over there...." We didn't ask whether she meant bomb everyone in Iraq or some larger group of Muslims, or nations of people, but the woman's self-awareness that her views were outside the "norm" caused her to refuse to participate. Undoubtedly others have specific and different reasons for non-participation that we have difficulty ascertaining because most won't talk about it.
(... next para describes a couple who are talked into participating despite initial reluctance; they reveal that they didn't want to answer at first because they would like the U.S. to "bomb them all" and realize this is a deviant opinion, at any rate nothing one is supposed to say in public ...)
If the "bomb them all" couple may seem the exception among non-responders, consider this: Fewer African Americans and Latin Americans agreed to be polled in both of our national samples (in the current poll 5.7% were African Americans and in the prior poll 4%; for Latin Americans the corresponding figures were 6.2% and 8%. Each of these groups make up about 12% of the U.S. population, actually 12.5% for Latinos). As a result, our poll sample ended up at 79.4% "caucasian" ( i.e. European American) but the actual White/non-Hispanic European American proportion of the population is 69.1% according to the 2000 Census.
MORE
http://www.retropoll.org/polling_fraud.htmDiscuss.