Once, by Rasmussen, in the early Aughts.
Argghh, the tediousness. I remember one such one.
The girl asking it, reading in a scripted droning slow monotone, would ask a question that would cause a listener to answer a yes or no answer. But she ( by order of course ) made you choose between “Do you strongly agree, somewhat agree, have no opinion, somewhat disagree, or strongly disagree?”. She conducted each question in such a brutally tedious format, each Q&A would be nearly a minute. While the questions themselves were mostly pertinent, I got so tired of the “simon says” format I just ( with as much politeness as I could muster ) said: “I’m sorry, I just don’t have the time right now to continue”, and I didn’t.
I have, many times over the years. I love giving my opinion to honest polls. (I’ve got at least one that was thinly disguised marketing.) Who knows - it could make a difference.
I used get called a lot to go to the Preview House in Los Angeles when I lived there. (I figured it was because I would actually show up.) Wish I still could,
In 2007 I was asked, as an “undecided” voter, to take part in a series of paid focus groups before the Australian federal election. Although the group conducting the “research” kept up the pretence of conducting unbiased polling it was fairly obvious that it was on behalf of the Labor party.
Because all the sessions involved a lot of open discussion I learned a lot about how voters think. The most obvious lesson was that most of them knew nothing other than the most superficial slogans spouted by the parties. It firmed a long held opinion that voting is largely a farcical waste of time. Events worldwide since then have done nothing to change that opinion.
I may have been called for a poll but only my call blocker knows for sure.
Never once polled until about four years ago. Since then I’ve gotten maybe two dozen polling calls.
Funny story: one wasn’t so much of a polling call as a robocall from a politician disguised as a poll. After a couple of routine questions like “Are you registered to vote?” and “Do you intend to vote?” the recorded voice asked, “Whom do you intend to vote for as Governor of Missouri? Press 1 for Republican Mike Parson, press 2 for Democrat Nicole Galloway.” I pressed 2. Next question: “Do you support allowing leftist mobs to burn cities to the ground? Press 1 for yes, press 2 for no.” It was then that I realized I was being suckered and hung up.
Like polls on abortion- “do you agree with murdering babies”?
I have been a couple of times before I stopped answering calls from unfamiliar numbers.
Like many have already related, it was always a push poll.
One of them eerily similar to what hey homie experienced
I have a landline and I answer it religiously, so yeah, all the time – I’d say at least once a month in the four months or so before any statewide or federal election. TBH, I sometimes wonder whether I should be talking to pollsters, given that my political views are … not exactly typical for a white person in Mississippi, but on the other hand, they are pretty typical for a never-married, non-evangelical woman with a graduate degree, and I figure it’s not my fault if they can’t manage to identify and adjust for the right demographic factors.
It would be really funny if I were singlehandedly behind the recent flurry of Mike Espy interest in liberal circles, though…
The one time I got polled by a political organization I’m not sure if it was a push poll or not. I don’t remember the questions using charged language, and they stuck to opinions rather than trying to push lies, but they did seem to subtly push toward one right answer the way that the “Political quadrant” quiz made by the libertarians always seems to have the libertarian answer as the “obvious” answer. At the end, they asked me who I was voting for and did not ask for a donation.
Usually I just hang up on them but when I do answer them I always lie, giving them the opposite of my true thoughts.
I was polled by Ipsos last week. It was supposed to be about my feelings about corporations but I think I flunked the screening questions so I wasn’t actually asked anything about any corporation. It just seemed like a bunch of questions having nothing to do with each other.
“In the past month, how often did you get news from the following sources?” She ran through a list: online (daily), TV (some days), newspaper (never), radio (most days).
“How closely do you follow the oil and gas industry?” I answered “not very closely” and there were no further questions about the oil and gas industry.
Some questions were strange - “In the past year have you had the opportunity to attend college?” I said yes since I clearly could have attended college if I wanted to. There were no follow-ups on that topic. “In the past year have you had the opportunity to attend a meeting such as a local government meeting or meeting with a school administrator?” “Yes”. Again, no follow-ups.
“How likely are you to vote in the upcoming election?” “Very likely”, but no questions about how I will vote.
The only common theme seems to be engagement in the world around me.
Yes. I used to be polled multiple times per election cycle (national, state, local). I think I was one of the few young people with a landline…
The more professional polling outfits are just down to business- pause and they end the call. They just want your kneejerk response- I presume to be both fast but also to prevent any attempt at gaming of the system. Also the national ones just have better worded questions.
But my all time favorite political calls were when I got on the NRA call list for a year or two. (That was some serious fun compared to the polling calls.) I must have promised them $50M at a minimum over the time, but somehow their donation information packets kept getting lost- regardless of how they tried to send them (USPS, FedEx, UPS).
Why do you lie to them? No attack, just curious.
Very good! I’m glad you’re doing your part for disinformation and confusion.
Because of people like you, we have blue Pepsi and president trump.
I’ve been polled many times, mostly for political reasons, but sometimes for movies and other things. I assume that once you indicate willingness to answer, you get more calls. Having worked in the market research biz a little bit (long ago) I am both curious about the process and question framing, and sympathetic to the person asking the questions.
However, since I got my phone hooked up to Nomorobo, all the polling calls have stopped, but we get the tell-tale “1 ring” calls all day long.
The other day, the caller ID came up as Nomorobo, so after a few rings (normally it is just one) I answered it, and it was a pollster, about our local state senate race, and I was happy to give some info.
There was a plebiscite here a couple years ago over a bond issue to build an indoor swimming. I got called and asked something like, “Do you plan on voting against the bond that will add $2 a month to your taxes to build an indoor swimming pool that will mainly benefit children?” I answered no and hung up. I sure would have liked to have that pool when I had a young family, and I certainly wasn’t about to deprive current young families of it to save less than the price of a dinner every year.
About 15 years ago while waiting in line at the DMV. The line was very long and was longer outside of the building than inside. Anyhow this small group of pollsters were “working the line” and as they got closer to me I began to overhear them. The opening questions was “Do you want to stop your taxes from going up?”. As they got closer, the group, or whoever they represented was trying to basically push-poll to gin up opposition to a planned light rail system.
I was more than ready to answer them when they got to me. “Do you want to stop your taxes from going up?”. My reply was that what specifically did they mean and what taxes, by how much, and for what reason? Of course it was a sales job to nix the rail system and spend the money on more roads to ease congestion. I asked them wouldn’t taxes go up anyway to fund the roads? But really I had to just lay out my thesis reasoning. That I’ve lived in this city/metro area for 25 years and I’ve seen what happens when developers get their way. More or wider roads only temporarily alleviated the congestion, rather all they did was encourage more subdivisions and retail and even worse congestion. The whole sprawl model isn’t working mister and I for one would like there to be an option to get around without driving.
One can’t prove a negative, but I guess their pitch didn’t drown the light rail in the bathtub. It was subsequently built and remains extant today, with expansion beyond the 1st phase.
I hang up on them. Maybe a few choice words inbetween.
They are a nuisance. I see no point in allowing random strangers to gain information about me at no cost to themselves, so I want to insure that they are gaining nothing useful while they are wasting my time.
Since it seems so common to hear 65/35 or 35/65 answers to the same question depending on who is asking, I like helping to insure that the echo chamber effect might instill some actual critical thinking in some people.