Telephone Surveys - the Dangers
A company was embarking on a major and highly controversial project. aLmost immediately, it was obvious that there was substantial public and political resistance. After approximately a year, the company decided to undertake a telephone survey to see whether the mood had changed. Thus, they hired a market research company to conduct a telephone survey of key politicians.
The survey results showed that, despite a fairly intensive public relations campaign, the mood against the project had hardened substantially. Politicians who had previously expressed some reservations were now firmly against.Analysis:
If one looks at the exercise from the point of view of a politician, a very different picture emerges.
Firstly, they have been called out of the blue, by someone they do not know and have never met. Naturally, they are immediately on their guard. For all they know, this could have been a journalist, someone from the opposing political party or a green group up to one of its japes.
Therefore, they adopt the first rule of survival in the civil service - cover your back: you cannot get in trouble for repeating something that has already been said if it did not cause you trouble the first time around. So, politicians revert to well-tried statements, especially those which they know have not caused any controversy with their consitituents.
Invariably, as most of the people are agaist the project, they concentrate on the negative statements. In addition, they decide to send a fairly unequivocal message.
As they are not sure who the person on the other end of the line is, all the other sides of the arguments - in other words, any positive thoughts they might have on the scheme - are not aired. They also hide these positive statements, as politicians are well used to being quoted out of context and they are well aware of the dangers of the injudicious phrase.
Therefore, the results of this survey are difficult not only to validate, but also to quantify, as the real views of the politician have probably remained hidden.
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