falk@sun.uucp (Ed Falk) (02/28/86)
I remember once, there was a survey on freedom of speach that asked something like "do you think people should be allowed to write things against the government?". A wide majority of respondents answered "no". This disturbed civil libertarians quite a bit until someone got the bright idea of asking "do you think people should be prohibited from writing things against the government?". This question got a similiar majority of people to answer "no". What this test showed was how much of a difference it makes how you pose the question, and how little you should trust opinion polls. I remember getting a poll in my mailbox curtesy of some right-wing politician which had the questions phrased in such a way that you had to answer things his way or wind up feeling like some kind of long-haired-commie-type pinko-fag. I was furious, because I knew that this politician would wind up using the results of this biased poll to justify some sort of inanity he was planning to foist upon us. -ed falk, sun microsystems