I want to help politics and policy, not politicians.

June 17, 2017 1:44 PM

When should I talk to telephone survey callers?

Occasionally, I get phone calls from survey companies. When they call, I often just say I’m not interested in talking and hang up, but sometimes I’m inclined to participate. If it’s a political survey that will help influence the public conversation about issues or policy, I don’t mind taking the time as I feel participating is akin to voting. But if the survey is sponsored by a politician I don’t support looking to gauge public opinion so he or she can prevail in the upcoming election, I don’t care to spend my time. Likewise, I don’t care answer questions about consumer products, eating habits, or the like where a for-profit company is probably commissioning the survey to get a leg up in the marketplace. And of course, I want to avoid all scams.

The problem is when surveyors call, they are often vague about the topic when I ask up front, and they’re always totally opaque about the sponsor or ultimate purpose of the endeavor. I also can’t stand it when I agree to participate in a survey and it goes on for a long, long time. (“Just a few more questions....”)

To sum up, I only want to participate in short surveys that will influence public policy or are measuring public opinion for news organizations or non-profits, but I want to decline surveys that are underwritten by individual candidates or consumer companies. What can I ask the surveyor from the outset or figure out from his/her intro statement to see if the survey meets my conditions?

posted by Leontine to Law & Government (4 answers total)

I have worked with a lot of pollsters. You can ask them who is sponsoring the survey and how many questions it is, but you may not get a straight answer. If you want to be more specific about asking who is sponsoring it, you can as "Can you tell me the name of the institution or political action committee that paid for this survey?" Sometimes the people making the calls don't even know, however.
posted by lunasol at 2:30 PM on June 17, 2017

I studied survey technique on college and for a long time felt somewhat obliged to play along with these polls, but I no longer participate. For one, the last several I did sit through dragged on far longer and asked progressively more uncomfortable questions, poorly worded questions, and the surveyor droned through a litany of choices (usually completely repetitive, like the "strongly disagree, disagree, neither agree nor disagree, etc.) scale over and over.

For another, far too many surveys are "push" polls ("Would you vote for Wintergreen if you knew that he only pretended to like babies?") or disguised fundraising/sales pitch techniques.

I get 5-15 unsolicited phone calls a day, and that's with spam call software running on my phone. I just can't deal with unnecessary phone calls of any kind anymore.

Lastly, I just don't think telephone polls are statistically valid anymore, so I don't feel that I'm contributing to anything worthwhile even if a given poll was legit. Assuming a valid poll design, you get a random sampling - of people who own phones and will sit through a 15-20 minute ordeal. I think it systematically under represents the poor, the young, and anyone with any self esteem at all...
posted by randomkeystrike at 4:19 PM on June 17, 2017

I used to be a telephone survey caller and I always do the surveys. Even the candidate ones and the push polls usually have something to do with policy. A lot of decisions and news stories are based on polls and I figure that half an hour a day during election season is not too high a price to pay to make sure my opinions and causes are represented.

That said, anything that is fully automated gets a hang-up. Marketing surveys get the hang-up. Anyone who asks for money, too.

Much like voting itself, the more you learn about survey methodology the scammier it all seems, but our system is still based on it so you're better off participating than letting the sponsor think that people like you don't exist.
posted by irisclara at 7:13 PM on June 17, 2017

Nah, don't bother. Most random political telephone surveys are skewed to conservative with bored old gramps & granmas mostly agreeing with them. Because that's the demographic that would answer a land line.

If you want to add a little nudge to influencing public policy, you could sign on to a petition for a cause that you agree with.
posted by ovvl at 7:46 PM on June 17, 2017