[EL] Push polling

[Michael P McDonald]

Jon,

I'm much relieved that you do not really seem to be talking about conducting a push poll. I may have disagreements with you, but I've never thought you to be unethical. You say that a poll should not pretend to be something it is not. A hallmark of a push poll is falsehoods masquerading as a poll, thereby giving the impression they must be true since they are delivered in a question format that credible polling organizations use. And I'd agree that it is often important to probe more deeply by providing balanced, factual arguments. That is just good survey methodology practice, not a push poll. From an election law perspective, I suppose we care that the message/polls has the proper sponsoring identification. Another indicator is that push polls don't convey this information.

-Mike

============
Dr. Michael P. McDonald
Associate Professor
George Mason University
4400 University Drive - 3F4
Fairfax, VA 22030-4444

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From: law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu [mailto:law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu] On Behalf Of Jon Roland
Sent: Friday, May 03, 2013 12:40 PM
To: law-election at department-lists.uci.edu
Subject: Re: [EL] Push polling

A push poll is not necessarily unethical, as long as it does not pretend to be something it is not. It is an educational tool. Done well, it merely helps the one polled to reach conclusions he might reach by himself if he were to diligently think through what he already knows and believes. Most people don't do that, and harbor inconsistent views.

An example of how this might be done on a current topic would be on universal background checks for the transfer of firearms. Stated simply, that sounds harmless enough, as a result of which polls get results like 80+% public support for it. But in a push poll the one polled could be asked things like would you support making it a federal felony for someone to loan a firearm to a family member for more than seven days without going through a firearms dealer to do a background check on the receiving family member, subjecting both family members to imprisonment for up to ten years. Other questions on the details of the legislative proposal that would make the one polled aware of the details, would likely lead to him concluding that the proposal is a bad idea and that he should oppose it instead of supporting it.

The best push polling does little more than make people aware of details that may lead to unintended consequences. But that can be a valuable service to public discourse on policy matters.

On 05/03/2013 10:37 AM, Michael P McDonald wrote: 
Here is the American Association of Public Opinion Researchers statement on push polling. As you may surmise, the professional organization of pollsters believes that push polling is unethical:

http://www.aapor.org/AAPOR_Statements_on_Push_Polls1.htm 




-- Jon

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