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24 Shevat 5766 - February 22, 2006 | Mordecai Plaut, director Published Weekly
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NEWS
Investigative Report Reveals Public Opinion Surveys are Skewed

by G. Lazer

Public opinion surveys are unreliable because phone workers who conduct the surveys sometimes fill out the questions themselves to avoid penalties for failing to meet their employers' quotas, according to an investigative report by Arutz 10.

Survey results can have a major impact on public opinion, on various political appointments and on voting patterns.

Arutz 10 checked several polling companies by planting employees at the companies. After getting hired, they found that other employees sometimes filled in the questions themselves to avoid being penalized, and discovered instances of lack of supervision at the country's leading market research company, Dachaf, which is owned by Mina Tzemach.

The investigators found at another market research company, Panorama, that employee screening is minimal and workers have discovered they need not bother to call to get answers, since their work goes unsupervised.

Dachaf denies the claims, saying the investigation lacks solid evidence.

Recently, Dr. Aharon Fine, head of the Tatzpit Institute, claimed there is a significant gap between election results and survey findings. Since 75 percent of people called refuse to participate in the survey, he said, respondents' opinions do not accurately reflect those of the general population. Fine believes that many of those who refuse lean toward right- wing and religious parties, therefore they go under- represented in the surveys. "The surveys are distorted and the distortion will be revealed in the elections," he says.

 

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