Hi,

I've just read an article written by Martin Killias (our version of Dianne Feinstein) and he presents datas from his Polls which I find EXTREMELY questionable. The thing is, he is known to have lied about guns and crime in the past...Hmmm... In addition to that, LOGIC tells me that they are BS.

So my question is this: are (some) Polls made up? I know that it is easy to tweak and modifiy Statistics, but Polls??? And what makes you think that they are made up?

By made up I assume you mean giving results to a poll that was never done. It's probably happened, but more often the polls are done so that the outcome is assured. The questions will be leading to a certain answer, and they'll use a list of supporters as their poll contacts.

It's been proven that 73% of all statistics are made up on the spot.

Many pollsters use leading questions to guarantee the desired response.

Ah Thanks guys

I can post the article, but the english version of it is missing the "interesting" Parts.
He basically says that in 2003 93% of the Swiss populace were for far more restrictive gun laws and that in 2005 90% were. By restrictive gun laws he means, banning full autos(even the ones we get from the Mil, i think), private sales, and a mandatory license.
He says that the lax gun laws are due to the Gunlobby (VWRC anyone?) and that his statistics prove that the gunlobbists are pro gun but that the populace isn't. LOL
That is ILLOGIC on soooo many levels and totally incoherent with the Reality, it's downright absurd.

The last survey by a famous FRENCH anti-Wine activist has shown that 90% of the french population is AGAINST wine consumption. I just made that one up, cool huh

Quoted: Many pollsters use leading questions to guarantee the desired response.

Happens here all the time.

Yup, they ask questions a certain way to get the desired results
of course if they don't get the desired results, they don't publicize the poll

I have been in a company that was conducting a poll, some of the workers
were too lazy to do the poll, so they made up answers instead of asking
and some of the workers were too biased to do the poll so they recorded the
answers that they thought were "right"

That reminds me of a groupd of statisticians (or whatever they are called) who, after the 2004 election, claimed that ACTUALLY John Kerry had won and not GWB. Thanks to their formulas, they were probably right but in the real world Kerry had lost. But then again Math is weird (0.999=1)
Anyone remember those guys?

If someone here could arrange for a tack, it would be interesting to see if of the thousands of viewers/posters, how many had ever participated in a "real" poll.  I bet it is not very many.  I never understood (statistics for engineers didn't help) how 1000 or 2000 people could possibly be enough to represent an entire country's opinion.  There are other problems too

Misleading questions
Dubious sample population (people too fucking stupid to hang up on unsolicicated phone calls)
Creative analysis of the numbers
Outright lies

Quoted: Hi, I've just read an article written by Martin Killias (our version of Dianne Feinstein) and he presents datas from his Polls which I find EXTREMELY questionable. The thing is, he is known to have lied about guns and crime in the past...Hmmm... In addition to that, LOGIC tells me that they are BS. So my question is this: are (some) Polls made up? I know that it is easy to tweak and modifiy Statistics, but Polls??? And what makes you think that they are made up?

You have to upgrade to team before we can tell you that

To do a poll, you don't have to be a statistician, you just have to be an english major. You can slant questions any way you want to get the results you want.

server probs. doubled my post