Name: 【TED-Ed】Pros and cons of public opinion polls - Jason Robert Jaffe
Uploaded: 2015-01-25T22:00:09.000Z
Duration: 4 min 25 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Adverbs of manner

We are constantly asked for our opinions.

Which team do you think will win the Super Bowl?

Important decision makers in American government

throughout elections and important legislation.

The problem is public opinion isn't easy to track

In 1948, the Chicago Daily Tribune ran a now famous headline:

they cried in big, bold, black and white letters.

The Tribune had relied on polls to come to their conclusion.

This happens all the time because public opinion polls

First, let's start with an important term:

that respond to questions during a public opinion poll.

A poll's quality rests largely on its sample,

and a sample can be bad in a few key ways.

Polls that are too small are bad for obvious reasons.

every single person in America for their opinion,

that only ask a certain type of person a question,

the potato is the best vegetable in America.

chances are that you would get a much different answer

than if you asked people in the state of New Mexico,

Getting the right kind of diversity in your sample

means making sure that your sample has a range

Finally, polls that are too hard can't tell you much either.

If you're asking people for their opinions on things

about which they have no prior knowledge,

You're better off shaking a Magic 8 ball.

The person doing the asking is part of the problem, too.

Humans generally don't like confrontation.

People worry that their answers may make them look bad.

Therefore, we find that people tend to give

And the way we word our questions matters too.

When polls purposely sway the answers one way or the other,

because it pushes people to answer a certain way.

if you knew that he robs senior citizens?"

to all sorts of manipulation and inaccuracies,

Despite their flaws, public opinion polls provide us

with some sense of the thoughts and moods

They offer politicians the chance to pass legislation

they think a majority of Americans will support.

know which star wore the dress better on the red carpet.

So, next time you get a phone call asking your opinion,

take some time to think about who is asking