Monthly Archives: November 2010

Trusting Polls: Confidence Intervals and Survey Bias

The illusion of scientific validity Let’s face it. Public opinion polls are pretentious. They boast that their results are obtained through “scientific” surveys. The implication of course is that a scientific survey delivers accurate results. In fact, they claim the … Continue reading

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Partisan polling: Is the GOP buying favorable results?

Nate Silver on his blog FiveThirtyEight examined the avalanche of polls conducted for the 2010 US midterm election and came to the somewhat shocking conclusion that certain pollsters produced biased results that favored the GOP. Specifically, he fingered the Rasmussen … Continue reading

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Reid vs Angle: A fabricated polling event

After beating Republican challenger Sharron Angle by 5% (50% to 45%) in Nevada, the winner and still Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid complained that the polls leading up to the election were “false and misleading”. He may be right. In … Continue reading

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