A new poll shows that people sometimes lie on polls, but it is not clear how much or what they tend to lie about, if indeed they do lie.
“It’s important information,” said poll expert Richard Dorcas. “We’re not clear what to make of it, but we’ll certainly make something of it. That’s what we do.”
Dorcas explained that, for instance, in surveys about diet, people tend to overstate their healthy habits, understate their unhealthy habits, and generally lie about everything else. “It’s one reason we’ve found it so challenging to measure how many people are vegetarian or vegan. Polls show people are eating less meat, but fortunately we’re pretty sure they’re lying about that, which helps for my Tyson Foods stock.”
Dorcas added that, unfortunately, much as he wishes that people were lying about drinking less cow’s milk, he suspects it might actually be true. “But other polls show that people think dairy prevents osteoporosis, which is very helpful, because we can present that finding as experts think dairy prevents osteoporosis, given that people are the experts of their own experience. See how that works?"
Dorcas noted that the new poll about lying on polls, while not infallible in its design, should be presumed to be valid insofar as it tends to show that people are dumb and dishonest but not insofar as it tends to show that no one can glean any definitive information from polls. “Really, polls are the only way we can get accurate information. We also get inaccurate information, but we don’t use that unless we absolutely need to."
All that to say, Dorcas emphasized that Americans need not worry themselves about whether people lie on polls because experts are in charge of all of that and experts never lie. People can also take heart in the fact that polls show that people believe that polls are becoming more accurate.
“The bottom line is that that we encourage people to trust in the science,” said Dorcas. “And fortunately, polls are showing that they really do.”
