LAST SEMESTER I took a statistics course for the first time - by the way, STAT 2120 is a great class, everyone should take it. While I did learn a lot about how to find various mathematical parameters of the volume of liquid in six random bottles in a bottling factory, the lengths of eight random sticks in a pack of bubble gum, and the estimated amount of time statistics students across the globe spend studying - it's way off, by the way - the most important thing I learned is that all the statistics in the world don't mean a thing without someone to interpret them.
Incidentally, I also have taken a class called Public Opinion in the politics department - very informative, take this one too - where we learned all about how the average dimwit and intellectual alike respond to public opinion polls, or what the political science world likes to call "survey research." From these two classes and others that comprise my lofty liberal arts education thus far, I have gleaned that basically survey research is a very dangerous thing to take seriously, but that many people do.
Unfortunately, through my classes, the readings I do for my classes, the mass media and everyday discussion, I am becoming increasingly more aware of our culture's overreliance on poll results. I challenge everyone who reads this to, the next time he sees a poll statistic, look up the exact question that was asked, paying particular attention to the word choice, and to think about the number and type of people who were likely to respond to the question. Then think about the number of other people who read that statistic and thought, "Wow, look how many people agree/disagree with what I think," thereby validating or undermining those individuals' own opinions. Certainly, one would hope that regardless of how many people agree or disagree with an opinion, those who hold that opinion do so for a legitimate reason. Yet anyone who has studied psychology will tell you otherwise.
Take Facebook as an example: when a person puts up a comment/status/link that a large number of your "friends" click that they "like," does that not make you like (in the real-world sense this time) yourself a teensy bit more? Don't you feel even a little bit more validated in whatever you posted on your page? Public polling has the same effect, except, unlike your perception of your self-worth, it can actually affect things that matter.
I'm thinking here about voting and policy decisions - whether it's on a university, community, state, or national level. Poll results themselves have a serious potential to affect the opinion of any group of people, and thus the results of subsequent polls. Policies are drafted using poll results that might not accurately reflect the "true" opinions of the poll respondents. The past few presidential elections have been won because a little over half of the little-over half of the American electorate who actually felt compelled to vote thought at that moment that the winner should be the ruler of the free world. How's that for an opinion poll?
I am not saying public opinion should not matter. I am saying that it is a dangerous mistake to believe there is any accurate way to measure public opinion. Even the most noble attempts can be mauled by someone with an agenda - anyone who has desperately rushed to put together a research paper, exaggerating maybe-a-little about the significance of your findings can attest to that. Since there is not an accurate way of measuring opinion, though, I just hope that people will take a more critical look at polls, polling data, and their mediated presentation.
Laura Lattimer is a third-year College student.
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