home | glbt center | news: Polling and Gay Issues

Does the Way You Ask, Change the Way You Answer?

The following article was a critique of pollsters and their choice of words on surveys. As the article indicates, the way in which a question is phrased or asked can greatly impact the answers that are given. An interesting and thought provoking piece, especially for those who ask questions of others.

What do a majority of Americans think about those of us who’re gay? Thanks to recent breakthroughs in gay civil rights, pollsters are showing new interest in finding the answers.

But accurately gauging public sentiment is proving to be difficult: Tiny variations in a gay question’s wording can produce hugely different results.

Top poll analysts have noted with alarm that two respected national polls asking slightly different questions about amending the U.S. Constitution to ban gay marriage produced such different outcomes. (An Annenberg Center poll found Americans, by a 12-point margin, oppose “an amendment banning gay marriage.” But a CBS News poll found that by a 15-point margin Americans favor an amendment “that would allow marriage only between a man and a woman.”)

These polling problems are especially worrisome because in this election year leading politicians in both parties are carefully calibrating their statements on legal recognition of gay relationships so as not to stray too far from what they think most Americans believe. And what tells politicians about public opinion? Public opinion polls, of course.

Pollsters should refashion their tools to try to ensure they are merely taking the public pulse and are never accidentally producing results that are more hostile to gay progress than the public actually is.

For more than a half-century, researchers have consistently found a “spiral of silence” — meaning, people are less likely to voice their true opinion if they think it’s not the majority view. And given the human tendency to try to conform, many people give whatever reply they think the questioner — or pollster — wants to hear.

What’s more, polling suggests that Americans tend to overestimate each other’s hostility to homosexuality.

All this tells us that pollsters need to be savvy, creative and flexible in wording gay questions, especially those involving whether to end marriage discrimination.

Did I say “marriage discrimination”? Yes. Do pollsters? No.

Any pollster will explain the golden rule of polling: To measure change, don’t change the measure. So that would mean if they haven’t framed questions about barring gay couples from marriage in terms of discrimination, they ought not begin doing so. But that’s mistaken, since discrimination is undeniably what’s going on.

Polling trend lines are helpful, so asking the same question year after year has a purpose. However, pollsters need to ask a new generation of gay questions besides those whose often-stilted or arcane wording sometimes blurs reality or nudges respondents toward voicing more prejudice than they might actually feel.

Our nation might have a clearer understanding of where we really stand if reputable pollsters would ask:

* Should states continue discriminating against same-sex couples who apply for marriage licenses?

* Should states be required to register the marriages of all couples, regardless of sexual orientation, wed by a member of the clergy?

* Is it fair for the United States to recognize the foreign marriages of heterosexual couples but not the Canadian marriages of gay couples? Or should all foreign marriages be treated alike?

* Should Florida continue prohibiting state-approved foster parents from becoming the adoptive parents of their children just because the parents are gay?

Pollsters acknowledge that when reality changes they are sometimes forced to amend their questions. When crime leveled off, they stopped asking about “the rising crime rate.” And they have modernized the way they ask some gay questions—about serving openly in the military, to name one.

The pollsters’ job is to measure change, not create it or delay it. So they need to test a new generation of questions to see whether the old ones need to be retired.

Deb Price writes for The Detroit News. You can reach her at (202) 906-8205 or dprice@detnews.com.

###