Is It Time for Real 9/11 Poll?

[G-K-4]

The 9/11 conspiracy crowd love to bring out that poll that they claim says a third of U.S. persons think the U.S. Federal govenment had some sort of sponsoring role in 9/11. Now, I know a lot of your think polling is bunk, but I would like to know if it's possible to conduct a real poll. I expect that if objectively worded, it would show that they CTers don't have anywhere near as much support as they think they do.

The poll should ask, in language as neutral as possible, whether people think that anyone in the U.S. Federal government consciously acted to attack the U.S. on 9/11. The poll should also ask people if they think the government knew what was going to happen, wanted it to happen, and decided not to stop it. Finally, the poll should ask if 9/11 happened because of incompetence or lack of preparation.

We could also ask other specifics, such as how many people think that the Twin Towers were destroyed by the plane crashes and fire, or planted explosives; whether they think the Pentagon was hit by a passenger place or a missile; and whether they think Flight 93 crashed or was shot down.

It might be useful to get demographic data on who believes what, especially age, educational level, and political orientation. We could also ask again every few years to track changes.

How do you commission a poll? What would be the right wording, and wording that could be used again and again? Could Franklin Pierce College do something like this?

 

[ktesibios]

The 9/11 conspiracy crowd love to bring out that poll that they claim says a third of U.S. persons think the U.S. Federal govenment had some sort of sponsoring role in 9/11. Now, I know a lot of your think polling is bunk, but I would like to know if it's possible to conduct a real poll. I expect that if objectively worded, it would show that they CTers don't have anywhere near as much support as they think they do.

The poll should ask, in language as neutral as possible, whether people think that anyone in the U.S. Federal government consciously acted to attack the U.S. on 9/11. The poll should also ask people if they think the government knew what was going to happen, wanted it to happen, and decided not to stop it. Finally, the poll should ask if 9/11 happened because of incompetence or lack of preparation.

We could also ask other specifics, such as how many people think that the Twin Towers were destroyed by the plane crashes and fire, or planted explosives; whether they think the Pentagon was hit by a passenger place or a missile; and whether they think Flight 93 crashed or was shot down.

It might be useful to get demographic data on who believes what, especially age, educational level, and political orientation. We could also ask again every few years to track changes.

How do you commission a poll? What would be the right wording, and wording that could be used again and again? Could Franklin Pierce College do something like this?

The Polling Institute at Quinnipiac University in Connecticut does a lot of opinion surveys in the Northeast and also nationwide. Their polls are pretty well respected.

Frequently cited by journalists, public officials and researchers, the independent Quinnipiac University Poll regularly surveys residents in Connecticut, Florida, New York, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania and nationwide about political races, state and national elections, and issues of public concern, such as schools, taxes, transportation, municipal services, and the environment. Known for its exactness and thoroughness, the Quinnipiac poll was selected a "winner" by the New York Post for the most accurate prediction on the Schumer-D'Amato Senate race in 1998, and results are featured regularly in The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, and on national network news broadcasts. Student interviewers use a computer-assisted telephone interviewing system to collect data from statewide and national residents. For a typical public opinion survey, a randomly selected sample of about 1,000 registered voters age 18 and over is interviewed over five or six days. The polls are conducted at the Polling Institute on New Road, adjacent to the main campus.

http://www.quinnipiac.edu/x11358.xml

The idea of doing it with an educational institution seems to me a good one. A problem I've noticed with professional pollsters doing commissioned polls is that they often don't hold the questions supplied by the organization commissioning the poll to the same standards of quality they use for polls they generate themselves.

I get regular invitations to participate in surveys for Zogby (I've been signed up for weveral years now). They routinely ask for demographic information that would be useful in selecting a representative sample, and the questions they ask in their own surveys are obviously painstakingly designed to avoid leading or influencing the respondent. When I take those surveys I can't help visualizing the survey writers bending over backwards to be neutral.

OTOH, when they do commissioned polls it's usually flaming obvious which questions were supplied by the commissioning party and what answers they're hoping to get. It's often even possible to infer just who is behind the poll.

I would hope that the academic milieu would be less susceptible to that sort of thing.

 

[eeyore1954]

The Polling Institute at Quinnipiac University in Connecticut does a lot of opinion surveys in the Northeast and also nationwide. Their polls are pretty well respected.



http://www.quinnipiac.edu/x11358.xml

The idea of doing it with an educational institution seems to me a good one. A problem I've noticed with professional pollsters doing commissioned polls is that they often don't hold the questions supplied by the organization commissioning the poll to the same standards of quality they use for polls they generate themselves.

I get regular invitations to participate in surveys for Zogby (I've been signed up for weveral years now). They routinely ask for demographic information that would be useful in selecting a representative sample, and the questions they ask in their own surveys are obviously painstakingly designed to avoid leading or influencing the respondent. When I take those surveys I can't help visualizing the survey writers bending over backwards to be neutral.

OTOH, when they do commissioned polls it's usually flaming obvious which questions were supplied by the commissioning party and what answers they're hoping to get. It's often even possible to infer just who is behind the poll.

I would hope that the academic milieu would be less susceptible to that sort of thing.

Certainly if the "Truth movement" were interested in Truth the wording of the question would have been more like
Do you believe the current administration took part in the planning and execution of the 9/11 terrorist attacks?

The Zogby poll was worded as it was to try to get favorable results so they could misuse them.

 

[ReFLeX]

Results of a Canadian poll were on the front page a couple of weeks ago:
My thread about it

In the 18-34 age group there was an acceptance rate of 26%. I wouldn't be shocked if that were 7% higher in the US. Or lower.

 

[defaultdotxbe]

id package the poll with a short IQ test, lol, to guage the intelligence of responders