General Discussion

[Jayelles]

OK, here's a question for you to see how accurately people will be at reporting things:-

A poll posed the following questions to 2000 people online about the British monarchy. Then figures in brackets afterwards indicate the percentage of pollsters who agreed with this statement:-

A) The monarchy is outdated and should be abolished (27%)
B) The monarchy does a great job, they should continue as they are (44%)
C) Undecided or no opinion (29%)

What percentage of the British population wants to get rid of the monarchy?

[Jayelles]

Originally Posted by Jayelles

OK, here's a question for you to see how accurately people will be at reporting things:-

A poll posed the following questions to 2000 people online about the British monarchy. Then figures in brackets afterwards indicate the percentage of pollsters who agreed with this statement:-

A) The monarchy is outdated and should be abolished (27%)
B) The monarchy does a great job, they should continue as they are (44%)
C) Undecided or no opinion (29%)

What percentage of the British population wants to get rid of the monarchy?

No takers?

OK here are some options:-

1) 100%
2) 27%
3) 56%
4) 44%
5) 29%
6) None
7) Don't know

I hope some of you will bite :-)

[cat840]

Originally Posted by Jayelles

No takers?

OK here are some options:-

1) 100%
2) 27%
3) 56%
4) 44%
5) 29%
6) None
7) Don't know

I hope some of you will bite :-)

Jay it is very hard to say as the question put in the poll was not

"do you wan't to get rid of the monarchy?".

If you ask a question differently you will get differnt answers IMO.

[Jayelles]

Originally Posted by cat840

Jay it is very hard to say as the question put in the poll was not

"do you wan't to get rid of the monarchy?".

If you ask a question differently you will get differnt answers IMO.

SO are you a "don't know?"

[dallasvic]

Originally Posted by Jayelles

OK, here's a question for you to see how accurately people will be at reporting things:-

A poll posed the following questions to 2000 people online about the British monarchy. Then figures in brackets afterwards indicate the percentage of pollsters who agreed with this statement:-

A) The monarchy is outdated and should be abolished (27%)
B) The monarchy does a great job, they should continue as they are (44%)
C) Undecided or no opinion (29%)

What percentage of the British population wants to get rid of the monarchy?

Hi J,

I say (a) I believe it is out of date

[cat840]

Originally Posted by Jayelles

SO are you a "don't know?"

Yes, I have to go with 7. I also don't think online users represent the whole population correctly.

[Jayelles]

Originally Posted by dallasvic

Hi J,

I say (a) I believe it is out of date

LOL - that's not the question VIc! The question is :-

"What percentage of the British population wants to get rid of the monarchy?"

Based upon the results of the poll which are:-

A) The monarchy is outdated and should be abolished (27%)
B) The monarchy does a great job, they should continue as they are (44%)
C) Undecided or no opinion (29%)

I should have put the question in bold - I thought about it but didn't do it. This is to do with poll results and how people interpret them. I'm trying to show how poll stats can be misleading.

[dallasvic]

Originally Posted by Jayelles

LOL - that's not the question VIc! The question is :-

"What percentage of the British population wants to get rid of the monarchy?"

Based upon the results of the poll which are:-

A) The monarchy is outdated and should be abolished (27%)
B) The monarchy does a great job, they should continue as they are (44%)
C) Undecided or no opinion (29%)

I should have put the question in bold - I thought about it but didn't do it. This is to do with poll results and how people interpret them. I'm trying to show how poll stats can be misleading.

Hi J,

LOL SORRY

Looks like 27%

is that right ?

[Jayelles]

1) - 1
2) - 0
3) - 0
4) - 0
5) - 0
6) - 0
7) - 1

Come on guys - have a stab!

[Portabella]

56% would be my guess.....

[andU]

Originally Posted by Jayelles

No takers?

OK here are some options:-

1) 100%
2) 27%
3) 56%
4) 44%
5) 29%
6) None
7) Don't know

I hope some of you will bite :-)

This is a very wild guess: #3

[Jayelles]

OK, here's a question for you to see how accurately people will be at reporting things:-

A poll posed the following questions to 2000 people online about the British monarchy. Then figures in brackets afterwards indicate the percentage of pollsters who agreed with this statement:-

A) The monarchy is outdated and should be abolished (27%)
B) The monarchy does a great job, they should continue as they are (44%)
C) Undecided or no opinion (29%)

What percentage of the British population wants to get rid of the monarchy?

Some options:-

1) 100%
2) 27%
3) 56%
4) 44%
5) 29%
6) None
7) Don't know

Results so far (sorry, I recorded Vic's wrong in the above summary):-

1) - 0
2) - 1
3) - 2
4) - 0
5) - 0
6) - 0
7) - 1

Come on guys - don't be shy! This is an interesting exercise!

[Jayelles]

I'm disappointed that no-one is having a go at this. I'm not sure whether it's because folk are shy or disinterested or scared to be wrong.

How about if you PM me and I'll keep IDs secret?

I'd like a few more answers before I explain things.

[andU]

Originally Posted by Jayelles

I'm disappointed that no-one is having a go at this. I'm not sure whether it's because folk are shy or disinterested or scared to be wrong.

How about if you PM me and I'll keep IDs secret?

I'd like a few more answers before I explain things.

I did answer, should I answer again?

[Jayelles]

Originally Posted by andU

I did answer, should I answer again?

No sweetie. I was hoping for a few more viewpoints :-)

[andU]

Originally Posted by Jayelles

No sweetie. I was hoping for a few more viewpoints :-)

Alrighty, then. We need answers, folks!

[JBRnotforgotten]

I will say # 4

[Jayelles]

1) - 0
2) - 2
3) - 2
4) - 1
5) - 0
6) - 0
7) - 2

OK, I got two responses by PM which brings the total of people willing to have a go to 7 - very disappointing!

The question was:-

A poll posed the following questions to 2000 people online about the British monarchy. Then figures in brackets afterwards indicate the percentage of pollsters who agreed with this statement:-

A) The monarchy is outdated and should be abolished (27%)
B) The monarchy does a great job, they should continue as they are (44%)
C) Undecided or no opinion (29%)

What percentage of the British population wants to get rid of the monarchy?

The point of the exercise was to demonstrate how polls can be misleading and how people can misinterpret the results. A former member here, Hideki sugested that a poll showed that 80% of people didn't believe the McCanns. I checked this poll out and discovered that Hideki had completely misrepresented the poll. In fact, what the poll was saying was that only 20% of people thought the McCanns were "completely innocent" of any wrongdoing - including leaving their children alone. That is not the same as saying 80% of people didn't believe them or that 80% of them think they are guilty! In fact, a significant number of pollsters (about a third) "didn't know" or had "no opinion".

In my poll question above, I asked "What percentage of the British population wants to get rid of the monarchy?". The correct answer is that we don't know! We don't know how many of the pollsters were British because the question just says that 2000 people took part "online". So it was an entirely misleading poll.

Had the question been "How many people want to get rid of the monarchy?" then 27% would have been a reasonable assumption since 27% of the pollsters responded that they thought the monarchy is outdated and should be abolished.

Many thanks to those who were good sports and took part in my little challenge :-)