“… the creators of the survey may deliberately try to influence the results by using questions that are purposefully worded in a biased manner.” – college-course excerpt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The above-quoted excerpt comes from a hand-out pertaining to a statistics course taught at Winona State University in Minnesota, and it refers to deliberate bias in a survey conducted by pollsters.
The entire statement says, “If the objective of a survey study is to support a certain cause, the creators of the survey may deliberately try to influence the results by using questions that are purposefully worded in a biased manner.”
The hand-out cites the following survey question as an example of deliberate bias in a survey question.
The administration of Democrat Barack Obama has still not satisfied congressional and media questions about just what it knew and when it knew it about the terrorist attack on U.S. diplomats in Benghazi, Libya, last September 11. That attack killed four Americans, including the U.S. ambassador to Libya. The Obama administration has changed its explanation of that attack several times since and has so far refused to identify those officials who made key decisions not to send help to stop the attacks, and who decided not to initially call the killings a terrorist attack. Knowing that and anything else you may be aware of about this issue, do you agree or disagree that President Obama should be impeached over his handling of this situation?
The hand-out goes on to say the following:
Given the wording of this question, how much faith do you have in the results of this survey study?
In general, avoid writing loaded or leading questions. You should always make sure your questions are worded neutrally.
Deliberate bias is not always introduced as blatantly as it was in the previous example. Some survey creators with an agenda simply take advantage of the proven fact that human beings, in general, like to be agreeable and are inclined to answer “yes” when a question leads them in that direction.
So, it is possible that a pollster’s survey is deliberately created to produce a particular result. It would not be a mistake for one to keep this fact in mind when one reads about a survey conducted by just one pollster, especially if the pollster has a reputation for having a strong political bias.
By the way, if you want to know which pollster is cited in the above-quoted college-course hand-out, then click here.
