Push Polling: Difference between revisions

Also there is polling people to identify their opinion personally in order to discover exactly who has what opinion, which is the opposite of legitimate polls where people are only identified by the demographic, not by name.

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* One episode of ''[[Yes Prime Minister]]'' had Sir Humphrey [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgyKpkLpccE demonstrate] how this works by asking Bernard two separate series of questions, one leading to the obvious conclusion that compulsory military service would be a good thing and the other leading to the obvious conclusion that compulsory military service would be a bad thing.

* There was a famous [[Real Life]] example to show how people will sign any petition if it's worded the right way. People were asked to sign a petition to ban the substance [http://www.snopes.com/science/dhmo.asp dihydrogen monoxide] - used in industry with almost no regulations, used by various kinds of criminals, capable of killing humans and other animals, able to corrode iron... Of course, anyone with a basic knowledge of chemistry should know what [[Don't Explain the Joke|molecule has two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom]].

* Demonstrated on ''[[Penn and Teller Bullshit]]'' in an episode about statistics. One guest shows how polls are slanted to get a certain answer by asking questions of the same person and getting conflicted answers.

* This was essentially how the famous "Dewey Defeats Truman" newspaper headline came to be, though it was unintentional. The newspaper conducted a phone poll to determine who people would be voting for. Unfortunately, phones were a new invention at the time; and only wealthy families had telephones installed in their homes. So, while those individuals likely did vote for Dewey, the lower- and middle-classes majorly voted for Truman.

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[[Category:Truth in Television]]

[[Category:Plots]]

[[Category:Push Polling]]