My guess is that the healthcare polling has been conducted somewhere in the middle between pejoratively-worded unbalanced questions and a balanced, rational approach. Moreover, the challenge is how to find the balanced, rational approach in the midst of so much opprobrium and contention about healthcare itself.
One aspect that is missing in the polling is the absence of a clear action point for the respondent.
In straight political polling, as in who is leading in a particular race, pollsters can control for likelihood to vote and respondents have clear choices about their actions: they can vote for a particular candidate or not.
In the healthcare debate, there is no single, clear and specific action for the respondent to take. (Although I hear that Rush Limbaugh has threatened to decamp the good old USA now that Congress has passed the healthcare bill–most of us, and most Americans, don’t have that option.)
All the folderal about healthcare polling strikes me as both ludicrious and hilarious. It’s somewhat akin to the (in)famous polls in which sections are read from the Declaration of Independence (not identified as such, mind you) and Americans disagree with the document overwhelmingly. Okay, so we’re proved that ignorance is rampant. WOW! What an insight! And did you know that chicken soup really is good for you when you have a cold?
My take-away is that in professional market research circles, the basics and fundamentals always, always apply. Yes, we rely heavily on both science and math (but let us remember that probability theory was originated by frustrated gamblers). Ultimately, however, we must put much care and attention to how we word questions and in what order we ask them.
As a wise old researcher once told me, you get the answers to the question you ask, not to the question you thought you asked.
Comments welcome!
Dr. Bob
