Study: Telephone Poll Participation Down

Yahoo! News ^ | 4/21/04 | Will Lester - AP

[NormsRevenge]

WASHINGTON - More Americans are refusing to participate in telephone polls these days, but carefully conducted surveys still can get accurate samples of public opinion — according to a new poll.

The study by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press found the percentage of people reached for interviews in a typical five-day Pew survey dropped from 36 percent in 1997 to 27 percent in 2003.

Many speculate that changes in technology such as cell phones, answering machines and call blocking are causing the decline in responses. But the Pew survey found the decline was caused more by an increasing reluctance by the public to participate in surveys.

"This is a long-term problem that pollsters have been struggling with," said Andrew Kohut, director of the Pew Research Center. Kohut said techniques used by pollsters to deal with poor response levels continue to work, even with higher refusal rates.

Pew conducted a much longer survey over five months from June to October 2003 to improve its level of response and compare the findings of the more thorough survey with the typical, five-day survey conducted in early June.

The study found little difference in public opinion between the five-day survey and the five-month survey with much higher response rates. A similar 1997 study by Pew found similar results between the typical survey and the extended survey with higher response rates.

Kohut said he has no way of knowing when poll response will get so low as to threaten the validity of poll findings. Those in the opinion research field will have to monitor their results to determine whether low response has begun to distort findings.

National results from election polling in 2000 closely tracked the narrowly divided electorate that resulted in the closest election in more than a century.

According to the study, there were many similarities between those who were easy to get to participate and those who were more difficult to get involved in poll interviews. Similarities included financial status, health, religious habits and opinions on a wide range of social attitudes.

Among the few differences:

_Those reluctant to be interviewed are less interested and less engaged in politics.

_Political independents were harder to reach than Democrats and Republicans.

___

On the Net:

Pew Research Center: http://www.people-press.org

[NormsRevenge]

More Americans are refusing to participate in telephone polls these days, but carefully conducted surveys still can get accurate samples of public opinion — according to a new poll.

:-?

[BurbankKarl]

That is why the LA Times still has Gray Davis ahead by 8 points!

[man from mars]

LOL, They have never called me. I guess they only want to hear from Democrats.

[Vermonter]

I'm active in politics and refused to participate in polls. I look forward to the day when polls are meaningless and candidates have to tell us what THEY believe in, not what they think we want to hear.

[templar]

I look forward to the day when polls are meaningless and candidates have to tell us what THEY believe in, not what they think we want to hear.

I look forward to the day when candidates believe in something other than just getting themselves elected.

[Who dat?]

Someone gave me one of those Tele-zapper things and it seems to work with a lot of calls. When you pick up it makes a tone and you can usually hear their phone hanging up before you even get a chance to say hello.

[proudpapa]

I was called two days ago around 10:30 am. I was told that I was 'randomly selected to answer some political questions for a poll. and was I willing to participate?'

After I answered Yes. The line went dead.

Maybe they prefer to poll women over men?