The Missing People
Random thought: Huge amounts of our perceptions of society are driven by various forms of surveys and polls. Everything from politics to psychology to marketing attempts to understand the human condition using these as their primary tools. However, there is an entire class of people who never participate in them. These people, who I am among, when asked to take a survey or upon seeing an ad for a study never have the slightest inclination to engage.
How much of the population falls into this category? We’ll never know, really (at least not by polling). But I can’t help but suspect that it’s a lot. Maybe even most. And what do they have in common? At the very least, their shared disinterest in studies is indicative of something about their character. Whatever the specifics may be, it seems certain that the fact that they exist means that our entire collective understanding of humanity is somehow fundamentally skewed.
So the question is, what are we missing?
February 10th, 2009 at 7:32 am
Oh man, I LOVE participating in surveys — people so rarely ask for my opinion before I thrust it upon them
But seriously, I think the percentage of people who aren’t polled because they opt out is much smaller than the percentage who aren’t polled because they’re poor or under 18 or homeless or have a cellphone instead of a landline (although things are changing for that last category). This still means the data is skewed, of course, just for more reasons than you’re suggesting here.
I’m not sure I understand why you don’t have any interest in participating in these kinds of surveys — could you go into more depth?
February 10th, 2009 at 11:29 pm
Probably the largest reason is that it feels invasive to me. Honestly, I’m none of their business. If they want to know me, I’m afraid they’ll have to do it the old fashioned way.
February 11th, 2009 at 12:55 pm
Sure, but they don’t WANT to get to know you. They want to better understand general social/financial/etc. trends on a nationwide scale to better aid in the development of programs which often effect the whole country, if not the world. If a person who wanted to be my friend asked me the same list of somewhat personal pre-written questions, I’d have the same reaction you’re describing, but their objective here is entirely different and I consider it important. Also I just like the idea of my opinions being taken into account, even though I’m sure I’m always an outlier