{"id":318079,"date":"2026-06-16T10:09:21","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T14:09:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/?p=318079"},"modified":"2026-06-16T10:09:21","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T14:09:21","slug":"video-how-to-spot-a-good-poll-vs-a-bad-poll","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/methods\/2026\/06\/16\/video-how-to-spot-a-good-poll-vs-a-bad-poll\/","title":{"rendered":"Video: How to spot a good poll vs. a bad poll"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Anyone can ask a survey question online \u2013 but does that make it a good poll? They might call themselves a pollster, but their methods aren\u2019t\u202fexactly best practice \u2014 and the internet is flooded with these low-quality polls. Here are a few simple things you can look for to tell whether a poll is legit or sketchy. To learn more about polling basics, watch our\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/playlist?list=PLZ9z-Af5ISavJpPlvdMU4T-etIDOUmldk\">Methods 101 video series<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"How to spot a good poll vs. a bad poll\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/yzfBOHihj6I?feature=oembed&#038;rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Anyone can ask a survey question online \u2013 but does that make it a good poll? They might call themselves a pollster, but their methods aren\u2019t\u202fexactly best practice \u2014 and the internet is flooded with these low-quality polls. Here are a few simple things you can look for to tell whether a poll is legit or sketchy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":377,"featured_media":318109,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"layout-full-width","format":"standard","meta":{"sub_headline":"","sub_title":"","_prc_public_revisions":[],"_ppp_expiration_hours":0,"_ppp_enabled":false,"ai_generated_summary":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"relatedPosts":[],"reportMaterials":[],"multiSectionReport":[],"package_parts__enabled":false,"package_parts":[],"datacite_doi":"","datacite_doi_citation":"","_prc_seo_qr_attachment_id":0,"spoken_article_player_enabled":true,"displayBylines":true,"footnotes":"","prc_watchers":[377],"_prc_fork_parent":0,"_prc_fork_status":"","_prc_active_fork":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[357,3082],"tags":[],"bylines":[631,888],"collection":[],"datasets":[],"level_of_effort":[],"primary_audience":[],"information_type":[],"_post_visibility":[],"formats":[470],"_fund_pool":[],"languages":[],"regions-countries":[],"research-teams":[528],"workflow-status":[],"class_list":["post-318079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-survey-methods","category-uncategorized","bylines-courtney-kennedy","bylines-sara-atske","formats-video","research-teams-methods"],"label":false,"post_parent":0,"word_count":68,"canonical_url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/methods\/2026\/06\/16\/video-how-to-spot-a-good-poll-vs-a-bad-poll\/","art_direction":{"A1":{"id":318109,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2026\/06\/PEW_M101_Thumb_EP4_Wide_B-2.png","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2026\/06\/PEW_M101_Thumb_EP4_Wide_B-2.png?w=564&h=317&crop=1","width":564,"height":317,"chartArt":false,"caption":""},"A2":{"id":318109,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2026\/06\/PEW_M101_Thumb_EP4_Wide_B-2.png","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2026\/06\/PEW_M101_Thumb_EP4_Wide_B-2.png?w=268&h=151&crop=1","width":268,"height":151,"chartArt":false,"caption":""},"A3":{"id":318109,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2026\/06\/PEW_M101_Thumb_EP4_Wide_B-2.png","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2026\/06\/PEW_M101_Thumb_EP4_Wide_B-2.png?w=194&h=110&crop=1","width":194,"height":110,"chartArt":false,"caption":""},"A4":{"id":318109,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2026\/06\/PEW_M101_Thumb_EP4_Wide_B-2.png","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2026\/06\/PEW_M101_Thumb_EP4_Wide_B-2.png?w=268&h=151&crop=1","width":268,"height":151,"chartArt":false,"caption":""},"XL":{"id":318109,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2026\/06\/PEW_M101_Thumb_EP4_Wide_B-2.png","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2026\/06\/PEW_M101_Thumb_EP4_Wide_B-2.png?w=720&h=405&crop=1","width":720,"height":405,"chartArt":false,"caption":""},"social":{"id":318109,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2026\/06\/PEW_M101_Thumb_EP4_Wide_B-2.png","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2026\/06\/PEW_M101_Thumb_EP4_Wide_B-2.png?w=1200&h=628&crop=1","width":1200,"height":628,"chartArt":false,"caption":""}},"_embeds":[],"watchers":[{"id":377,"name":"Sara Atske","email":"satske@pewresearch.org","slack_user_id":"","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/499a853e28aa044e16889d91f455efbc21a0cbd9d5fa5e81ffe0a551062bd540?s=48&d=mm&r=g"}],"table_of_contents":[],"report_materials":"","report_pagination":{"current_post":null,"next_post":null,"previous_post":null,"pagination_items":[]},"parent_info":{"parent_title":"Video: How to spot a good poll vs. a bad poll","parent_id":318079},"materialsOrdered":[],"chaptersOrdered":[],"partsOrdered":[],"partsEnabled":false,"datacite_doi":"","prc_seo_data":{"title":"Video: How to spot a good poll vs. a bad poll","description":"Anyone can ask a survey question online \u2013 but does that make it a good poll? They might call themselves a pollster, but their methods aren\u2019t\u202fexactly best practice \u2014 and the internet is flooded with these low-quality polls. Here are a few simple things you can look for to tell whether a poll is legit or sketchy.","og_title":"Video: How to spot a good poll vs. a bad poll","og_description":"Anyone can ask a survey question online \u2013 but does that make it a good poll? They might call themselves a pollster, but their methods aren\u2019t\u202fexactly best practice \u2014 and the internet is flooded with these low-quality polls. Here are a few simple things you can look for to tell whether a poll is legit or sketchy.","schema_type":"Article","noindex":false,"canonical_url":"","primary_terms":{"category":357},"custom_schema":[],"og_image":318109,"indexnow_submitted_at":null,"gsc_index_status":{"verdict":"NEUTRAL","coverage_state":"URL is unknown to Google","robotstxt_state":"ROBOTS_TXT_STATE_UNSPECIFIED","indexing_state":"INDEXING_STATE_UNSPECIFIED","last_crawl_time":null,"page_fetch_state":"PAGE_FETCH_STATE_UNSPECIFIED","crawled_as":"","mobile_verdict":"VERDICT_UNSPECIFIED","mobile_issues":[],"rich_results_verdict":"","rich_results_issues":[],"inspection_link":"https:\/\/search.google.com\/search-console\/inspect?resource_id=sc-domain:pewresearch.org&id=xhZfveynmh11_eBXHaVtPA&utm_medium=link&utm_source=api","fetched_at":1781618969}},"prepublish_checks":{"prc-image-alt-text":{"status":"complete","message":"No image blocks in content.","data":null},"prc-about-this-research":{"status":"incomplete","message":"Add an \"About this research\" details block.","data":null},"prc-paragraph-count":{"status":"incomplete","message":"Add at least 2 paragraphs (currently 1).","data":{"count":1}},"prc-internal-link":{"status":"incomplete","message":"Add at least one internal link.","data":{"count":0}}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2026\/06\/PEW_M101_Thumb_EP4_Wide_B-2.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"relatedPostsOrdered":[],"bylinesOrdered":[],"acknowledgementsOrdered":[{"key":"_i27z213tl","termId":631},{"key":"_7r7l17dch","termId":888}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/377"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=318079"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318079\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":318241,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318079\/revisions\/318241"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/318109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=318079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=318079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=318079"},{"taxonomy":"bylines","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bylines?post=318079"},{"taxonomy":"collection","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/collection?post=318079"},{"taxonomy":"datasets","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/datasets?post=318079"},{"taxonomy":"level_of_effort","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/level_of_effort?post=318079"},{"taxonomy":"primary_audience","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/primary_audience?post=318079"},{"taxonomy":"information_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/information_type?post=318079"},{"taxonomy":"_post_visibility","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/_post_visibility?post=318079"},{"taxonomy":"formats","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/formats?post=318079"},{"taxonomy":"_fund_pool","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/_fund_pool?post=318079"},{"taxonomy":"languages","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/languages?post=318079"},{"taxonomy":"regions-countries","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/regions-countries?post=318079"},{"taxonomy":"research-teams","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-teams?post=318079"},{"taxonomy":"workflow-status","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/workflow-status?post=318079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}