Never trust the polls!

Over the last few years there have been a number of famous polls that have been dramatically inaccurate.

However, that's not what this week's blog post is about, so apologies if you arrived here expecting a serious discussion on why polls often get their predictions wrong. As usual, this week's blog post takes a light-hearted look at the subject of the week, as I discuss stupid surveys and peculiar polls.

1) "It's fun to stay..."

Whoever created this first survey forgot to include one obvious answer...

This is one survey you can trust.

I have to admit, the first time I heard of the YMCA was through the Village People as well! I suspect that's the case for most people under a certain age.

2) Waka-waka-waka

A pie chart is a cool way to display the results of your poll.

Are pie charts that look like Pac-Man cool?

3) How to skew the results (part 1)...

This next poll appears to be conspicuously missing an essential answer, but I can't quite think what it is...

No is not an option.

I'm sure whoever created the poll definitely didn't have a hidden* agenda, and I'm sure they definitely didn't want to artificially skew the results at all. I'm sure the lack of a 'No' option was just a genuine oversight on their part. **shifty eyes**

* Or not so hidden, as the case may be.

4) Where's the 'no' button!?

To demonstrate a similar lack of integrity, I've created a similarly worded poll.

5) How to skew the results (part 2)...

This next screenshot isn't technically a poll, but in a similar fashion to example 3, it does seem to be strangely missing a 'No' option.

Another 'unintentional' oversight.

Once again, I'm sure it was a genuine oversight on their part that they forgot to include a 'No' option. Hmm...

6) How to mess with someone with OCD...

Here's another poll I've created which is perfect for anyone who wants to mess with someone with OCD!

7) You can prove anything with polls and surveys…

Finally, I recently read a survey on the 'Top 10 things which make people happy'. Rather surprisingly, at number 5 on the list was ‘Finding a £10 winning lottery ticket’ with 28% of the vote.

"Sigh! I won a Ferarri but I remembered I'd entered the competition.
What a disappointment! If only I'd forgotten that I'd entered..."

I couldn't help questioning, finding a £10 winning lottery ticket? Not a multi-million winning lottery ticket? Just a £10 winner?

I find it rather bizarre that ‘Finding a multi-million pound jackpot winning lottery ticket’ didn’t even make the top ten! I can only conclude that either the people who took the survey were idiots, or it was a flawed survey created by someone who unintentionally didn’t word the survey very well.

Number two on the list was ‘Winning a competition you had completely forgotten you had entered’. I fail to see why forgetting you had entered would make any difference. I’m sure if I entered a competition to win a Ferrari, then I would still be extremely pleased to win it whether I remember my entry or not!

Once again apologies to anyone who was expecting a serious discussion regarding why polls are frequently wrong. As explained, this week's blog post was just a daft look at silly polls. You can find more silliness below:
10 pieces of silly advice
Silly job titles (part 4)
Silly pie charts