Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Studies, Surveys and Polls

Two Thoughts for Tuesday   

Thought Number One....If we are to believe in polls, studies and surveys, we need visuals.


Call me a naysayer....a doubter...a cynic but I am constantly doubting the results of SURVEYS, POLLS and STUDIES.  I like to think of them as modern fairy tales at best or devious attempts to push an agenda at their worst.  A day hardly goes by without some new  study being done to give us some sort of insight to the "real" state of things.  Of course the fact, that the numbers never seem to support whatever our perceptions are regarding the subject cause me a bit of pause.

Well....that was true until I saw this poll.  It seems that the results are entirely what I would have thought as accurate. 
Still, with 60,000 participants, the Parade/OMG poll asked respondents to vote for which celebrity annoys them the most.  The fact that they only shared the top six was a bit of a  disappointment but here are the:

Winners.....drum rolllll, please....The WINNERS ARE!!!!

1. Kim Kardashian 29%
2. Charlie Sheen 27%
3. Snooki 21%
4. Lindsay Lohan 16%
5. Donald Trump 5%
6. Brad Womack 1%

While I don't question the accuracy of their survey, I do think if they want us to take it seriously it is IMPERATIVE that they give us a graph.  What is a poll without a graph of some sort?  If the Parade/OMG wanted to get my attention....it needed to look like this.





 Another example to really bring my 1st thought home....here is another poll that asked older Americans if they thought the level of their happiness depended on their mental health.   The title of the study was:

STANDARD OF LIVING, HEALTH KEY TO EMOTIONAL WELLBEING AFTER 65


This poll was done by the Gallup Poll people





To understand this poll you have to read all the disclosures such as "how to define" emotional health.

Emotionally well-off Americans are individuals whose scores on the Gallup-Healthways Emotional Health Index are above 90, out of a maximum of 100. The Emotional Health Index is based on a comprehensive measure of emotional wellbeing asking individuals whether they felt "a lot of" each of the following emotions the day before the survey: smiling/laughing, learning/doing something interesting, being treated with respect, enjoyment, happiness, worry, sadness, anger, and stress. In addition, the survey asks people whether they have ever been diagnosed with depression.

So to summarize this poll.....Out of those that were surveyed that weren't totally NUTS...39 percent said they were satisfied, 16 percent aren't nuts but  are not happy and the other 55 percent are MISSING.

Feel free to try to figure out the missing at Your Emotional Wellbeing at the Gallup Poll.


My Second Thought for Today....Because I believe in polls (hhahahahahaha)  I will start doing my own totally accurate, you will believe anything, and it must be true because there is a visual, SURVEY


I have surveyed 15 of my dearest friends to answer the following question (for those of you that are finding it incredulous that I have 15 dear friends, you will just have to take my word for it...if it would help I will send you a graph)


The Question is DO YOU THINK THAT WE WILL ALL BE ABLE TO RETIRE WHEN WE ARE STILL ABLE TO FEED OURSELVES AND LIVE OUT OUR LIVES IN CONTENTED BLISS?




The Good for the Day... I experience all the emotions listed on the emotional wellbeing disclosure, especially the stress so therefore I must be OK...right????

The Bad....those missing pollsters are MIA


The Weird...the myriad of subjects that people do polls and surveys about.









 









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12 comments:

Annie (Lady M) x said...

What's that popular saying ...'lies damn lies and statistics'? I remember when I did my PhD which involved a lot of statistics, I was shocked about how I could produce the 'right' result by skewing the data. Not that I did mind you. I would never do that. Or jump a red light.

Madge said...

I can't believe you would put such porn on your site, I'm appauled that you would make me watch clay "doing it". Thanks a lot that's an image that my brain will never be able to forget!! You should have warned me so I could gouge out my eyes before pushing play!!!! :)~

AngelBaby said...

I love your polls and graphs! I really enjoyed the clay people and I wonder how they did on the polls! LOL!

Here's your click............

Love and Blessings,
AngelBaby

Cheryl P. said...

Lies, damn lies...is there anything more truthful than that. I love all the polls with such outrageous numbers and they never add up to account for 100% of those polled. I think every time I want to "prove" my point of view, I am going to do a poll with a graph.

Cheryl P. said...

I always did say that smut sells...in my case, I give it away for free. I would have warned you but I am so naive that I didn't realize it was porn before you pointed it out. Now it all makes sense.

Cheryl P. said...

Thanks, AngelBaby. Gosh, it is good to see you back on the Internet.

As far as the polls regarding the clay people, I guess I can manufacture random numbers and do a graph showing them as WINNERS. Everything is more believable with a graph.

Liggybee said...

You are so right about the visuals...I like to see the graphs, too. That's one of the reasons I like USA Today. They tend to use a lot of the graphs to illustrate their poll, studies, and survey results.

Trina said...

I think that your poll is the very best one I've ever seen! Not only did I care to read how people answered the question, but I was visually stimulated by the number of people who needed you to repeat the question :)

Clicks!
--Trina

Wolfbernz said...

Hi Cheryl

I really like your poll and graph... plus or minus 5 percent anyway... LOL
The best part of your poll was the Are you F****** kidding me Cheryl - I got good laugh on that one.

I have always thought that the polls were used to further someones agenda. I don't really believe them to be very good.


Clicks
Wolf

Cheryl P. said...

Hi Liggy, I also like USA Today. They do a great job in substantiating their articles. Plus they don't have all the local bias and drama that the local papers have.

Cheryl P. said...

Thanks, Trina, Maybe I should do a poll on the level of interest my friends have in talking to me.

Cheryl P. said...

I have pretty funny friends.

Yes, I don't put much faith in polls. Funny how the numbers vary to much depending on who conducts the study.