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That's how opinion polls work. The article in question has the following at the bottom: > SurveyMonkey Audience polls from a national sample balanced by census

by untog 8y ago

That's how opinion polls work. The article in question has the following at the bottom: > SurveyMonkey Audience polls from a national sample balanced by census data of age and gender. Respondents are incentivized to complete surveys through charitable contributions. Generally speaking, digital polling tends to skew toward people with access to the internet. SurveyMonkey Audience doesn't try to weight its sample based on race or income. Total 1,178 respondents collected March 16-17, 2019, a margin of error plus or minus 3.07 percentage points with a 95% confidence level. This isn't some random internet voting widget, there is discipline behind it.

ilamont 8y ago
I don't see the discipline you refer to. There's no description of the questions, how people were directed to the forms, or even if the survey was anonymous. We don't know if people took the survey after reading a negative story about the 737 MAX, or whether they were truthful about the demographic information they were asked to provide. For the CBC or Business Insider to conclude the poll "suggested 53 per cent of American adults never want to fly on a 737 Max" is a very irresponsible claim, in my opinion.
- untog 8y ago
  "There's no description of the questions" > We asked more than 1,100 respondents "If you had a flight on a Boeing 737 Max next week, and the FAA decided to clear the aircraft for flight, given the issues the plane has experienced, what would you do?" "how people were directed to the forms" > We recruit US survey respondents from the 2.5 million people who complete SurveyMonkey surveys daily. They volunteer to join our panel, SurveyMonkey Contribute. https://www.surveymonkey.com/mp/audience/our-survey-respondents https://www.surveymonkey.com/mp/audience/our-survey-responde... "whether they were truthful about the demographic information they were asked to provide" Should Survey Monkey ask people to submit a copy of their passport with their responses? This is why polls have a margin of error, to take things like this into account.

by untog 8y ago

ilamont 8y ago

I don't see the discipline you refer to. There's no description of the questions, how people were directed to the forms, or even if the survey was anonymous. We don't know if people took the survey after reading a negative story about the 737 MAX, or whether they were truthful about the demographic information they were asked to provide. For the CBC or Business Insider to conclude the poll "suggested 53 per cent of American adults never want to fly on a 737 Max" is a very irresponsible claim, in my opinion.

untog 8y ago
"There's no description of the questions" > We asked more than 1,100 respondents "If you had a flight on a Boeing 737 Max next week, and the FAA decided to clear the aircraft for flight, given the issues the plane has experienced, what would you do?" "how people were directed to the forms" > We recruit US survey respondents from the 2.5 million people who complete SurveyMonkey surveys daily. They volunteer to join our panel, SurveyMonkey Contribute. https://www.surveymonkey.com/mp/audience/our-survey-respondents https://www.surveymonkey.com/mp/audience/our-survey-responde... "whether they were truthful about the demographic information they were asked to provide" Should Survey Monkey ask people to submit a copy of their passport with their responses? This is why polls have a margin of error, to take things like this into account.