Some studies are nothing more that fishing expeditions. Here’s an example: One Girl. The Status of Girls in Central Ohio.
This is the question making local headlines (from page 13):
Question: If you could make a group that was JUST FOR GIRLS what do you think girls would want to talk about??? (Put an X next to all the interesting topics)
Here is one of the possible responses:
____ Bullying & Girl Drama
Now that’s a survey question with headline potential.
Taking the bait, the local paper drops the “& Girl Drama” and runs with this headline, “Survey of girls reveals pressures: Fifth- through 12th-graders deal with friends, boys, body image, bullying.”
Admittedly, the paper appears to recognize that “drama” is a really a catchall that includes, in a general sense, every other possible response. So it should recognize that it overinflated the bullying issue with its minor redaction.
But why not rewrite the response to read, “____ Keynesian Economics & Girl Drama.”
Then we could have read, “Survey of girls reveals pressures: Fifth- through 12th-graders deal with friends, boys, body image, Keynesian Economics.”
It all depends on who is asking the question and the responses they want to hear.
{ 5 comments }
I heard 5th through 12th graders have to deal with inflationary effects of monetary policy a lot.
Survey design is a funny thing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hjh13hxehl4
I see you enjoy the spineless incompetence at your local paper about as much as I do. Are all newspapers generated by spambots? Is that the awful truth? What else could explain why each day is some witless version of “Well gee, that’s what them officials said, all right.” Analysis? Reference? Context? History? Follow-up? That sounds like a lot of work. So instead, here’s what the Suburban Panel Board Counsel said last night. Thrilling. Hell, you can better figure out what’s going on in your community, why it matters, and how we got here, by just reading the Pennysaver.
I did enjoy this line: “When we talk to adults, they say, ‘Girls need mentors,’” Budros said. But the girls, in focus groups, said, “Do not assign me a mentor. That was unexpected,” Budros said.
“Said said said, ‘said said’ said Saidsaid,” Budros said.
Unexpected? Huh. I, too, can’t imagine why girls find too much drama and not enough mentorship while locked up among other children of exactly the same age and background. Just shocking, what with so many useful resources locked up in that building with them.
Also, is bullying illegal yet? I keep hearing about this vague bullying epidemic, but I haven’t seen anything about tougher child sentencing requirements, like repeating the 7th grade, or castration.
Bhuric beat me to it. That scene is gold, and while it’s fictional it’s an excellent demonstration of why surveys are less about research and more exercises in confirming biases.
Polls strike me as very much like mainstream “news”: carrying potentially dangerous mental disease and to be pretty much avoided.
Comments on this entry are closed.