10-02-2022, 07:57 AM
Years ago I used to do a survey that was a monthly booklet with all sorts of questions in it. The reward was "points" which could be spent on goods and I did "buy" a few useful items over the years that I did it. It got a bit tedious with having to record all grocery expenditure, etc., but was also interesting for political polls. I also did a TV ratings one for a short while - it was too onerous. I was supposed to record times and what was on the TV every time I entered or left the room.
The specific political polls that are currently in the media only sample a relatively small number of people but they ensure that it is the right cross section of society and enough people for it to be statistically correct when the numbers are extrapolated across the population as a whole. Often they tell you the margin of error - amusing when the political party gets eg 3% but the margin of error is 3%, meaning that they might actually be 0% (or 6%). Back when we still had a landline we would sometimes get phone calls where the caller would check household numbers and ages and then say "we have enough in your demographic and don't need you" or else very occasionally we would "fit" what they needed and answer questions.
I guess it's a bit like jury service - some people get called up heaps of times, others never.
The specific political polls that are currently in the media only sample a relatively small number of people but they ensure that it is the right cross section of society and enough people for it to be statistically correct when the numbers are extrapolated across the population as a whole. Often they tell you the margin of error - amusing when the political party gets eg 3% but the margin of error is 3%, meaning that they might actually be 0% (or 6%). Back when we still had a landline we would sometimes get phone calls where the caller would check household numbers and ages and then say "we have enough in your demographic and don't need you" or else very occasionally we would "fit" what they needed and answer questions.
I guess it's a bit like jury service - some people get called up heaps of times, others never.