Most of these exercises pose issues for discussion. There are no right or wrong answers, but there are more and less thoughtful answers.

Question 3.85

3.85 Political polls.

Candidates for public office hire polling organizations to take sample surveys to find out what the voters think about the issues. What information should the pollsters be required to disclose?

  1. What does the standard of informed consent require the pollsters to tell potential respondents?
  2. Should polling organizations be required to give respondents the name and address of the organization that carries out the poll?
  3. The polling organization usually has a professional name such as “Samples Incorporated,” so respondents don’t know that the poll is being paid for by a political party or candidate. Would revealing the sponsor to respondents bias the poll? Should the sponsor always be announced whenever poll results are made public?

3.85

(a) The subjects should be told what kind of questions will be asked and how long it will take. (c) Revealing the sponsor could bias the poll, especially if the respondent doesn’t like or agree with the sponsor. However, the sponsor should be announced once the results are made public; that way people can know the motivation for the study and judge whether it was done appropriately, etc.