Why polls about social issues are nonsense (racist, state, claim)

[hakkarin]

Sometimes polls are used in attempt to understand how people view society and the world. People are asked questions about themselves and how they view others. The problem is, that these polls stupidly assume that people will actually reply to them honestly.

The biggest problem with these kinda polls is that most people are weak-minded and have an idealistic version about themselves, and thus when replying to polls will overstate whatever good qualities they believe they have while downplaying the bad ones. A perfect example of this would be polls that are suppose to prove society has somehow become more tolerant and open than in the past, a claim that progressives love to make.

The problem is, that nobody (well few people anyway) is actually going to reply to a poll by outright stating they are racist or intolerant or whatever. They will say they don't dislike people just because of a race or gender or whatever, and they are of course nothing but good decent people, because that is what everybody wants to think about themselves. But in reality they don't live up to the ideal.

For example:

Millennials Are Less Tolerant Than You Think -- Science of Us

Another example is some poll that progressives used to claim that welfare doesn't make people less willing to work. Their argument: Because the poll asked people if they were less willing to work even though they were accepting welfare and they said no. Because most people will simply admit to themselves that they are social parasites right? And saying that they are PLANNING on getting a job is the same as getting one right?

What people think about themselves isn't always what they actually are, so polls asking about social issues are often total crap.

So whenever somebody tries to use a poll to show what society is like today, always ask if the poll merely asked people what THEY THINK ABOUT THEMSELVES instead of actually asking what they do.