Surveys

  • Don't worry about polls, but if you do, don't admit it.

    Rosalynn Carter (1927 - )

  • I know there are some polls out there saying this man has a 32% approval rating. But guys like us, we don't pay attention to the polls. We know that polls are just a collection of statistics that reflect what people are thinking in reality. And reality has a well-known liberal bias.

    Stephen Colbert (1964 - )

  • A questionnaire is never perfect: some are simply better than others.

    William Edwards Deming (1900 - 1993)

  • The idea that the examination of a relatively small number of randomly selected individuals can furnish dependable information about the characteristics of a vast unseen universe is an idea so powerful that only familiarity makes it cease to be exciting.

    Helen Mary Walker (1891 - 1983)

  • Statistics has been the handmaid of science, and has poured a flood of light upon the dark questions of famine and pestilence, ignorance and crime, disease and death.

    James A. Garfield (1831 - 1881)

  • Asked about the power of advertising in research surveys, most agree that it works, but not on them.

    Eric Clark (1937 - )

  • Lyric copyright by Dennis Pearl and Lawrence Mark Lesser
    may sing to tune of "It's Only Rock 'N Roll (But I Like It)" (Mick Jagger and Keith Richards)

    If I could just up and throw a dart
    And try to capture every age
    Would it satisfy ya, would it slide on by ya
    Would you think the sample strange? Ain't it strange?

    If I could win ya, if I could bring ya
    To a stratified design
    Would it be enough for your sampling part
    If broken down by sex and age? By age?

    I said I know it's only just a poll but I like it
    I know it's only just a poll but I like it, like it, yes, I do
    Oh, well, I like it, I like it, I like it
    I said don't you fall, 'cause a call-in poll is not the only.

    If I could just up and throw a dart
    And capture every age
    Would it be a sample you could trust
    Would it help to ease the bias? Get by us?

    Sampling error is just one part
    Margin of error on the page
    Would it satisfy ya, would it slide on by ya
    Did ya think about the subjects that abstain? They abstain

    I said I know it's only just a poll but I like it
    I said I know a scientific poll and I like it, like it, yes, I do
    Oh, well, I like it, I like it, I like it
    I said don't you fall, 'cause a call-in poll is not the only.

    And do ya think that it's still the biggest one around?
    I bet you think that makes 'em valid and the error go down

    I said I know it's only just a poll but I like it
    I said I know a scientific poll and I like it
    I said I know a scientific poll and I like it, like it, yes, I do
    Oh, well, I like it, I like it. I like it...

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