Are the results of an on-line poll or a call-in vote scientific? What if millions of people participated? Does that make it more "legitimate"?

Many people are understandably suspicious of poll results. Unless you know that a survey is done scientifically, there is cause to doubt the results.

Sample selection and type of questions are two cues. When conducting a survey, how a researcher selects participants is just as important as how many participate. Scientific surveys can include every member of the group to be studied, but this approach is usually impractical and/or expensive. Instead, researchers often draw conclusions about a target group using information gathered from a small representative sample of that group. Representative samples must be selected carefully and without bias.

DISCUSSION:

Research a poll or survey and its results. This should be easy since the Internet is literally overflowing with "survey results."

Examine the poll/survey results and methodology closely. How was the survey conducted, who was surveyed, how many people were included, how were they selected etc.

In your INITIAL POST you must include the following information:

(1) Name/subject of the poll

(2) Who conducted the poll

(3) The results of the poll

(4) Any information you can gather about how the survey was conducted

(5) Your comments/conclusions about whether or not you trust the survey/sample now that you know more about it, and your general feelings about the use and validity of surveys and polls. Has it changed since you started taking this course? What is the danger of having poll/survey results so broadly disseminated to the general public (many of whom know nothing about statistics)?