tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6177765367520062599.post3522869053197488860..comments2023-08-05T08:42:15.402-07:00Comments on Social Problems Are Like Maths: Are opinion polls bad for democracy?Aveekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10210986823171843460noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6177765367520062599.post-56574891868478819642013-09-30T15:11:52.298-07:002013-09-30T15:11:52.298-07:00Good question. There is experimental evidence to s...Good question. There is experimental evidence to suggest such an effect does exist (http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/2012/11/opinion_polls_do_voters_pick_a_candidate_based_on_polling_data.html).<br /><br />However I suspect real life elections are much too complicated to differentiate between the multifarious influences on victory and defeat. Moreover the effect is likely to be very small, so you'd need a very close election for opinion polls to be decisive (Of course, the closer an election is, the weaker the influence of polls on voting behaviour)<br /><br />The example parties were actually German - Germany has had a relatively prominent Pirate Party too: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirate_Party_GermanyAveekhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10210986823171843460noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6177765367520062599.post-86058370241362715142013-09-28T03:08:22.194-07:002013-09-28T03:08:22.194-07:00Cool article, have there been many historical exam...Cool article, have there been many historical examples of opinion polls resulting in a major shift in results?<br />I'm pretty sure your example of parties is of Swedish ones. Been getting into reading about local politics in Swedish media? :)Alexhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16724721053709916668noreply@blogger.com