Data in Decline: Why Polling and Social Research Miss the Mark - Paperback

by Steve a. Wood (Author)

You may have noticed that a lot of opinion polls aren't very reliable. For a long time this wasn't so true, and pollsters have been coasting on former reputations of accuracy, but it's getting much harder for them to do so.

Conditions used to be such that polls could largely compensate for many of the issues that plague the social sciences. Polling firms built business models which assumed these conditions as given. However, since the dawn of the new millennium, those assumptions have been breaking down, imperiling the industry. Data in Decline explains:

• How social and technological changes contribute to growing polling inaccuracy;
• Why survey research is a format predisposed to getting things wrong;
• The reasons why traditional formats are unlikely to get any better;
• What changes are needed in order for findings to reflect reality.

Fixing the problems isn't easy, but it can be done. If you want to better understand the scope of the issues and what it would take to right the ship, this book is for you.