Do Politicians Use Push Polls?

725 Words2 Pages

How to know if you are being lied to by polls Politicians can use different methods to win elections. They often use 2 tactics: promotion of the own candidate and blackening of rivals. Push polls are one of the examples of the second category. It is “an interactive marketing technique, most commonly employed during political campaigning, in which an individual or organization attempts to influence or alter the view of voters under the guise of conducting a poll” (Wikipedia, 2015). Campaigners do not even need to say the actual facts from politician's biography or lie about them. Their goal is to sow doubts. Organizers of push polls often use hypothetical questions to achieve a result. For example, in 1994 Bush’s callers “asked voters ‘whether …show more content…

However, candidates can try to use them to deprave rivals' positions. Voters need to understand differences between push polls and ordinary polls to defend their right for verifiable information. It is difficult for some people to recognize illegal actions, because researches also use negative information in normal inquiries. The main characteristic of push polls is speed. Callers have goal to cover thousands of voters and do not spend much time on one person. CBSNews.com staff’s article shows normal pre-election inquiry can take to 20 minutes. In this case researches are interested in public opinion. They can inform voters about some “unpleasant” facts from candidate’s biography, but they will be proven. Researches also want to know person's reaction to the poll. “Are respondents being misled? Is the questionnaire itself harmful to the respondent?” (CBSNews.com staff, …show more content…

However, it does not mean politicians will provide a free and easy access to reports about their “sins”. Network and other spheres infill with different kinds of information, which goal is to form voter's opinion. Common people can not always say what facts are true. However, they should not believe too much in strictly-negative information. It is normal for legal polls to ask, how person's opinion about corruption-fighter would change after report this candidate use corporations’ sources for more comfortable work or life. These campaigns base of proven facts. Push polls, on the other side, use hypothetical questions, which touch disputable socials themes. For example, how would person’s opinion change if he or she knew candidate is homosexual or prefers this kind of

More about Do Politicians Use Push Polls?

Open Document