The political pollsters never call me. The marketing/research types, on the other hand, seek my views quite regularly. This is a roughly paraphrased and greatly abbreviated version of a phone survey I took a couple days ago;
After a brief introduction and explanation as to the type of questions to expect, she began;
Q: “Of the two following health problems, which would you say is more prevalent – heart disease or lung disease?”
Me: “What do you mean, which one? They usually go together.”
Q: “No they don’t.”
Me: “Yes they do – heart failure generally leads to lung problems and lung disease can cause the heart to fail.”
Q: “I’m not sure that’s…”
Me: “It’s why they call it cardiopulmonary.”
Q: “Oh.”
Me: “It’s a stupid question.”
Q: “I’m not sure what to tell you, other than you have to pick one.”
Me: “Oh, whatever – put down heart disease”.
Prematurely relieved, she went on to Question 2.
Q: “Which would you say is more common, cancer or blood disease?”
Me: “Well, there they go again! What do they mean by “blood disease”?
Q: “I don’t understand”.
Me: “Is leukemia a cancer or a blood disease?”
Q: “I see your point.”
Me: “Who designed these questions? They’re illogical.”
Q: “I don’t know”.
And so it went. It didn’t take long to figure out that “injury related health costs” were on the poll designer’s mind – a survey to test or design communications strategy for the Worker’s Comp or some other “tell us how to live our lives” program. (Perhaps the mandatory bike helmet or spikey-shoes for seniors lobby?) Near the end we got into the numbers.
Q: “What would you estimate to be the cost to the Saskatchewan heatlh system of preventable injury – $500,000; $1 million; $500 million; $1 billion; $1.5 billion?
It’s not so hard to spot when questions are designed (the only age-relative question being “whats the greatest killer of Saskatchewan residents under the age of 40?”) to push results towards a general conclusion – in this case it appeared the one they were aiming to prove, “Saskatchewan residents vastly underestimate the incidence and cost of injury to the health care system”.
So, I picked $1 billion. “Oh.” Her voice registered surprise. She went on with a few other questions, and closed with this;
Q: “On a scale of one to five, five being ‘very in favour’, how supportive would you be to programs designed to lower preventable injury?”
A: “Is there a zero?”
Expect to hear in the upcoming weeks, a news release from some government agency advising us that Saskatchewan residents “greatly underestimate” the costs to the health care system of work-related and preventable injury – justifying yet another regulation, program or communications strategy designed to perpetuate their own existence.
Kate, now you see why the political pollsters don’t call you. 😉
However, heart disease and lung disease do not always go together. You can have hypertension, or other heart diseases exclusive from lung conditions, and you can also have asthma, COPD, emphysema without the heart being directly affected. Sure, in the grand scheme, everything is connected, but it is possible to have separate disease states.
Sure Michael – but I didn’t say they “always” went together.
Nobody I know trusts the results of any of these polls done by these, so called, market research firms. The only poll that counts is on January 23, 2006, get out and excercise your democratic right, vote!
The conservatives should run on the campaign plank that totally BANS ALL, yes all government use of marketing, add firms, spin doctors , media consultants and or polsters. The first gubmint dickwad who picks up a phone to even call any of these trough suckers will be publicly executed.
I am sick of being drained of my hardearned money so some useless tool can tell me how good a job they don’t do.
Government is a huge parasite on the back of society, these communications experts steal our money to tell us that we should be thankful.
We should be able to cut our taxes in half after we turf these parasites.
Kate…What medical school did you attend?
Happy holidays to you and your family
As Kate’s post illustrates, sponsored polls are always suspect as most are designed to elicit the answers the sponsor is looking for.
But oh to be in the polling business as our entire political system depends on them. “Gee how should I vote” “I guess I should look at the latest poll to see who is winning”….or “what do I think about this or that”…
You get my meaning. It is a lot easier to let others do your thinking for you…
Dam Kate…you foiled the bureucrats comfy little “public consultation” scam by asking pertinent questions of the non factual assumptions in their leading questions….you fouled the bell curve girl! 😉
I have participated in 2 political polls and the questions were similarly “stupid”…in one of them a certain party’s policies were misrepresented constantly and then we were asked to comment with a definitive yes or no response….well, what’s your first reflex to a negative premise ( mostly based in a misrepresenting of the fact)….talk about pollsters leading the answers they want.
The one pollster would not identify who their client was to me so I refused to answer. The other was an Angus poll who said it was commissioned by the Star communications….the latter was the poll with the non factual leading questions.
Winnie got it right…”polls are for dogs to pee against”…only a propagandist would promote the validity of these urine-soaked K-9 poles. 😉
Dam Kate…you foiled the bureucrats comfy little “public consultation” scam by asking pertinent questions of the non factual assumptions in their leading questions….you fouled the bell curve girl! 😉
This is why I think Kate would make a great super hero albeit the cartoon variety.
Recently a friend suggested the following method of foiling pollsters and marketing fools.
When the pollster/marketeer phones, ask them to hold while you trace their call because you’re involved in doing a police investigation. When you come back suggest that a police officer will be arriving at their office to interview them within minutes.
This is usually followed by a “click.”
Mike…You’re on top of your game. Do you have a method for getting no cost pizza on a 30 minutes delivery or it’s free deal.
Merry Christmas all.As for the poll i would of hung up the phone.
Ron ..Give it up.
It’s getting rather embarrassing man , are you drunk..
Laughed at, not with, is no way to go through life.
craig is right. Has anybody thought of responses like: I don’t have medical training or enough information to answer that question, or a simple no comment.
richfisher…Being laughed at by you is a compliment. The way you stroke Kate, come on we all know what you’re up to.
Ron, you crossed the line into trolldom a long time ago. People, stop feeding him.
Either stick to the topic or leave. I have a generous comments policy here, but I have my limits. People who clog up the threads with meaningless ad hominem spam are likely to find themselves evicted.
I immediately tell Pollsters/telemarketers that my shop rate is $50.00/hr, minimum 1hr, where do I send the invoice?
That ends it.
Thanks for the gate-keeping, Kate. I’ve noticed that since your postings on CBC began, more than a few of the animals in the adjacent field have been hanging over the fence.
Incidentally, should you ever decide to take a run for a seat in Saskatchewan, I would step forward to donate and assist in your efforts.
MGK:
Me, too.
But I don’t know if the process is ready for rational, honest, objectivity…Yet.
Merry Christmas, Kate!
Back to polls, Global Media had a poll going on there Decision 2006 page called “horse race” that they were going to keep going until election day. Well it only lasted a couple of days before they pulled the plug. The last time I saw it it was 38.5% Conservative, 34% NDP, 23% Liberal, with the remainder going to the Block. Of course all of these polls are not scientific by any stretch, but please everyone, remember to vote on election day, it’s your right and responsibility.
If you want a statistically accurate result from a poll (Yes, I do have a Math degree although not a statistics degree) you have to ask reasonably neutral questions and you can not ‘prepare’ a person for a question; these principles are almost never followed in public polling (usually only followed in the scientific community).
For the most part polling is a PR excercise, they design the questions (and order the questions) to get a certain result; Notice how it is always “Nationally, the Liberals have a 6 point lead on the Coservatives. In Qubec the Conservatives only have 8% of the popular vote” rather than “Outside of Qubec the Liberals and Conservatives are in a statistical tie, while in the West the Liberals are trailing by 10%”
Kate…I will clean up my act, I agree personal attacks lack integrity and are disrespectful. You don’t have to answer any of the other questions I’ve asked, however, I would like you to answer this one.
Do you not consider some of your comments here to be of the ad hominem variety?
Ron, as my critics have pointed out on countless occasions – I’m a fascist.
It’s one of the perks.
All trolls please report immediately to http://www.commentsplease.com. Once there, you can follow the red, bouncing ball. We guarantee that you’ll feel right at home, surrounded as it were with other attention-seeking patients in Warren Kinsella’s temporary psych ward for wayward Liberals.
Kate…Thank-you for your honesty eventhough I had to read between the lines. Maybe someday we can lighten things up a bit and discuss photography, art or music.
Only in Saskatchewan? Not a chance!!!
so whats next, reallocation of the health budget by poll results.
pity anyone that has a heart attack in december when the bureaucrats say ” sorry, the 23.6 % of the billion ran out on Novemeber 14 and we cant allow anything till the next fiscal year”
this is a great blunderer of a country. and I dont mean great , I mean “great blunderer”
another loop of redtape another rule another lawyer another law.
FREE THE WEST
I like the “Is there a zero?” question you asked, Kate. I too have asked that before and then I courteously decline to partake in the survey if the answer is, “No.”
A bit too early to say Merry Christmas yet, but why not. Merry Christmas, Kate.
As a followup to one of Ron’s questions – No, I didn’t attend medical school.
However – I am the co-author of a peer-reviewed paper published in the Journal of Veterinary Ophthalmology�.
Me too Kate..if you run i would step up to the plate and donate…And i live in Alberta..i know a few others that would to.
To all,
In the spirit of CHRISTmas, it is time to cut Ron some slack, he is no Robert Mclelland.
Ron MERRY CHRISTMAS (politically incorrect, I Know but I don’t give a rat’s you-know-what).
As you mentioned earlier today you will try to keep all discourse civil and on-topic.
I have call display. If I don’t recognize the name or number, I don’t answer the phone. If it’s important, they’ll leave a message.
As a result I haven’t answered a poll or survey in over 8 years.
Most polls are only worth the price of the paper they are written on. That is unless you are using it as a PR tool. As was mentioned before, who is the biggest client of the polsters? Yep, the Liberal government.
Reminds me of that classic question:”Tell me sir, have you stopped beating your wife yet?” Garbage in, garbage out.
Have a Mery Christmas Kate and your band of merry cyber-debaters (yes, even Ron too).
Feliz Navidad y’all
I’m like Marc. $7.00 a month is well spent money for call display, to screen out those 1-800 numbers.
Kate..MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU AND YOURS AND ALL THE BEST IN THE COMING YEAR.
Kate if I may interject here; Please forgive Ron. He has lost more than his credibility, he has lost reasoning capacity…but there is an explanation. When one wades knee-deep though one’s own feces, as Ron is forced to do, the constant exposure to inhaled maethane cause brain damage. This is perhaps why he can no longer tell firend from foe, robber from victim or up from down.
Forgive him for he is a victim of self inflicted mental deficiency. Gesides we need a laugh and a daily reminder why we are NOT all liberal butt snorkelers.