Fact or Fiction?? the answer

old · May 7, 2010

Most polls though taken say what the person or group of person want it to say. I.E. Most polls are very close to being fiction because most are done in a target area/group. As in if a poll is taken asking if Black people are bad and it is taken from white people in an area where there is 60% blacks and 40 white well yes it will come out that they are bad. Same goes with things like seat belts.
Do they save life's or do they kill yes they do both but you never here the other numbers.
So yep 85% of polls are made to say what the poll taker want them to say so are in fact fiction

rrlund · May 7, 2010

Acording to the Book of Useless Information,95% of statistics are made up.

Stan - Florida · May 7, 2010

And "90% of baseball is half mental" (or at least a close quote that is attributed to Yogi Berra).

Stan

rrlund · May 7, 2010

And,when you come to a fork in the road,take it.

Janicholson · May 7, 2010

I didn't find a pronged utensil but I did find a 16oz craftsman steel shanked claw hammer in the road (I gave it to my son).
Recent evidence indicates that the .05 confidence level is also so dependent on circumstances that it is not usable, in most cases, to show association, let alone causality. Jim

tjdub · May 7, 2010

It's tough to make predictions, especially about the future.

rrlund · May 7, 2010

Funny you should mention that. I found a quarter inch drive rachet in the road yesterday when I was hauling manure. Stopped and picked it up,but it was one of those cheap Chinese jobs though. Wonder what the odds are that it would be.

James Howell · May 7, 2010

And several baseball players are tempermental; 90% temper and 10% mental.

Anonymous-0 · May 7, 2010

I was taught there are three kinds of lies people tell.
White Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics.

Cas · May 7, 2010

Is it ok to quote from the book of "useles
statistics" before you order one?

Goose · May 7, 2010

A classic example of polls gone awry is the 1936 presidential election. A major poll, I believe it was Roper, took a poll of 3,000 registered voters taken at random from telephone books. The poll predicted nnalert Alf Landon would beat nnalert FDR in a landslide victory. Exactly the opposite happened on election day.

So what happened? The people polled were selected from the telephone book. The country was just coming out of the Great Depression. Only the wealthy could afford telephones. And the wealthy tended to be nnalert.

So much for polls.

While I'm on the subject, I once went through two weeks of training to do Gallup polls. Gallup polls are so phony, I couldn't handle it. The main thing is Gallup still insists on doing polls by telephone. Again, with caller ID, answering machines, and other electronic marvels, the only people pollsters actually get in voice contact with are the lower strata who are clueless.

just another old geezer · May 7, 2010

NOTICE!!!due to a lack of interest, the future has been canceled

showcrop · May 7, 2010

Figures don't lie but liars can figure.

tlak · May 7, 2010

Like Fox News comedy show, they ask Fox viewers so the numbers are always against common sense and the American way.

Mike (WA) · May 7, 2010

The other problem with polling is that people are so disgusted with everything that they deliberately participate, just to try to screw it up (witness the post below about the "polls" on here- the majority of us cut hay with a hand scythe? And this isn't even political). You can discern the "slant" of the pollster after about 2 questions, and I know folks who then make it a point to answer questions so the results will come out opposite.

730d se · May 7, 2010

The Gallop Poll indicated a 13% increase in new registered voters for 2008. They sampled around 2,700 people. The actual number is 13% based on poll counts after the election. I would venture to say that they got it pretty close.
The tree falling part is that many of them were 18 to early 20s in age.

HughB · May 7, 2010

I took a course in statistics in college 50 yrs ago. The one thing I remember above all else. Never ever trust a poll that shows a certain political party ahead of another in a political race. They are after that undecided vote and will try to sway your decision by showing that they are ahead. Yes, you really can make a poll show anything you want. It just depends on what part of town you do the polling. To say that the general population thinks a certain way based on the results of a poll taken in one neighborhood is biased and inaccurate.

Larry NE IL · May 7, 2010

HUH???

Ron in NS · May 7, 2010

Or, if you come to a fork in the road, look for a knife and spoon....

MarkB_MI · May 7, 2010

You said you had something to say about statics or maybe you meant statistics. What was it?

trucker 40 · May 7, 2010

Right,if they dont just lie about it like everything else.

WvaJim · May 7, 2010

Yeah, we are sure psmnbc never does that.

old bc · May 7, 2010

Internet polls that allow you to choose an answer by clicking are not very accurate.

Anonymous-0 · May 8, 2010

What you didn't know at the time was the previous owner had thrown it away.I'm inclined to think all these items would be on the road.

Fact or Fiction?? the answer

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Member

Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Member

Member

Member

Well-known Member

Similar threads