Why I distrust polls....

.... because they are hijacked by organisations, governments and individuals to get the information that they want. Read this article about the Science Museum's temporary exhibition about climate change and then this blog article about the online poll for the same exhibition.

Comments

Elee said…
That's really depressing... all round. :(

Definitely distrust polls. Although there was quite a good example of a poll being hijacked for good not evil a while ago. I can't remember the full story, but it was something like...

The Mirror put a poll on their website asking people to agree or disagree with the statement "I think that Gypsies should be allowed to jump NHS waiting lists". (I think this may have happened because people from travelling communities sometimes need treating more quickly because they move from place to place). Anyway, this got round on twitter (or something), and lots of people went on the site and voted 'Yes'. I think the Mirror then took to poll down!
Dr J said…
Whoa, that is really disturbing, not to mention unethical and probably illegal, given privacy laws. If the Science Museum was a university, the person in charge might have been fired by now.

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