Friday, April 10, 2015

Trolling Polling

I answered the phone last night and got a pollster asking about a proposal to mandate that Florida companies with five or more employees give them paid sick leave.  (A Google search yielded no such proposal in the works.)

Pollster: Do you favor such a proposal, yes or no?

Me:  Yes.

Pollster: Is that a strong “yes” or a somewhat “yes”?

Me:  It’s a binary question: it’s either “yes” or “no;” there’s no gradations to that kind of question.

Pollster (after a pause):  I understand, but is your answer a strong “yes” or a somewhat “yes”?

Me: Yes.

Pollster: Strong or somewhat?

Me: Yes.  As I said, there are only two choices.  It’s like a light switch: it’s either on or off.  I said Yes.  Now if you had asked me “Do you favor such a law, and if so, do you favor it strongly or somewhat?” I would have been able to qualify my support.  But you asked me Yes or No.  I said Yes.

Pollster (longer pause): Okay, sir, that’s all the questions I have.  Thank you.

Me: Who’s on first?

[Click]

Hey, I don’t have either a cat or a laser pointer.  You find fun where you can.

4 barks and woofs on “Trolling Polling

  1. Along those same lines, how does one qualify the average on a scale of 1 – 10. 5-1/2 is never an option, but with a scale of -5 to +5 zero is always the average.

  2. Maybe I should cooperate with pollsters instead of saying “no thanks” and hanging up. I see I’m missing something.

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