Why do polls commonly claim to show the country's opinions on given subjects when they only survey a tiny fraction of the population?
by 
Aristocles
ANSWERS: 6
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I DON'T KNOW BUT JUST WANTED TO SAY : GREAT FREAKING QUESTION!
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Research who's conducting the poll and you'll usually find an agenda.
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A large enough poll can give you reasonably accurate data. They generally include a deviation (plus or minus) that will decrease as the sample size increases.
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it's a "REPRESENTATIVE POPULATION POLL" Which just means that if they survey people who are all different from eachother demographically and geographically, it can represent the entire population on a smaller scale.
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That is because there is a science in taking polls. If correctly performed, polls can prove to be very accurate. George Gallup likes to explain it with his soup analogy. One spoonful of soup can accurately represent the taste of the whole pot so long as everything is well-stirred. Here is a good link explaining how polls work: http://www.notrain-nogain.org/Train/Res/Num/how.asp
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It is the media's self empowered voice to make people think that the mainstream is leaning a particular direction, most likely the way that they want you to think. The media is strickly a political entity in my mind. I don't pay any attention to them whatsoever on opinions.
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