Stop what you are doing this instant. Before you do anything else, answer this: how do you feel? What are you eating? Who will you vote for? OK, continue on with your life. And now, stop again. How do you feel in this instant? What are you eating now? Still voting for the same person? That's basically what happens with a poll. It's a snapshot of you and your thoughts at this moment. Not before, not after, but in that slice of time when the question is asked.
Not surprisingly most of the polling these days relates to politics and all its corollaries. Who the respondent will vote for, to be sure, but what that person thinks of a candidate's plans, stands and personality are also subject to survey. While the battle for the White House is the main event, there are also 35 seats in the US Senate up for a vote, all 435 spots in the US House of Representatives, 13 state and territorial governorships, plus countless state and local level races and propositions. Of course, not everyone votes in every race, but even so it can be a full time job to keep track of all the ones in your jurisdiction and have an opinion on each. You might be at least a little conscious of things at the national level, but a little fuzzy when you get down to the race for County Commissioner in Codington, South Dakota.
But we all have opinions and thoughts on far more than who gets to sit in the big chairs. Over the years polling organizations have probed the American psyche on a variety of topics. Most questions relate to items of national import, and try to divine the mood in areas from birth control to guns to race relations. The results of those surveys both reflect the current state of play as well as help to drive policy. It's a tightrope to be sure: politicians and policy makers don't want to get too far ahead of public opinion, but neither do they want to be behind it.
That said, not all polling relates to matters of earth-shattering consequence. In 2000 Gallup did a Halloween-themed survey of the populace. Not surprisingly two-thirds of Americans responded that they would be giving out candy to trick-or-treaters, and more than three-quarters said that kids in the household would be wearing a costume. Nothing really surprising in those results. But the survey also revealed that the percentage of American adults that believed in ghosts had increased over two decades from 11% in 1978 to 31% then. While no recent polling has been published on the topic, if that trend continued that means that today more than half of us are looking under the bed.
More recently polling regarding our current situation has led to factual confirmation of anecdotal trends. While Americans usually eat out 4 to 5 times per week, the lockdown has unsurprisingly changed that. Now 60% report cooking at home more. At the same time, about 30% say they are snacking more, with 25% thinking more about food than usual. As to what else we are doing besides eating and thinking about eating, more than 50% say that their evenings are spent with family and/or watching TV. A few read (6%), a few do needlepoint (3%), a few play cards (1%). And perhaps unsurprisingly nearly twice as many men (13%) as women (7%) say their favorite thing to do in the evening is rest or relax. Note that Dad is likely snoozing on the couch while saying he is watching TV with the family, which screws up the results.
Those findings are enlightening if not terribly specific. What we need are some more targeted polls that focus on specific parts of our lives. In that vein last year Harris conducted a survey on behalf of California Pizza Kitchen. While the topic may have been narrowly focused, there's no reason to think that the results themselves were skewed. So I'll take it at face value that 69% of Americans prefer to eat their pizza hot vs. cold, that 65% believe that pizza is an acceptable breakfast food, and that 25% of Americans would be willing to go a date just to have someone buy them pizza. And lest you think none of this involves social policy, it's worth noting that 38% of Americans believe that pineapple on pizza should be illegal. Movements have begun with less conviction.
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Marc Wollin of Bedford likes spinach on pizza. His column appears regularly in The Record-Review, The Scarsdale Inquirer and online at http://www.glancingaskance.blogspot.com/, as well as via Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
Not surprisingly most of the polling these days relates to politics and all its corollaries. Who the respondent will vote for, to be sure, but what that person thinks of a candidate's plans, stands and personality are also subject to survey. While the battle for the White House is the main event, there are also 35 seats in the US Senate up for a vote, all 435 spots in the US House of Representatives, 13 state and territorial governorships, plus countless state and local level races and propositions. Of course, not everyone votes in every race, but even so it can be a full time job to keep track of all the ones in your jurisdiction and have an opinion on each. You might be at least a little conscious of things at the national level, but a little fuzzy when you get down to the race for County Commissioner in Codington, South Dakota.
But we all have opinions and thoughts on far more than who gets to sit in the big chairs. Over the years polling organizations have probed the American psyche on a variety of topics. Most questions relate to items of national import, and try to divine the mood in areas from birth control to guns to race relations. The results of those surveys both reflect the current state of play as well as help to drive policy. It's a tightrope to be sure: politicians and policy makers don't want to get too far ahead of public opinion, but neither do they want to be behind it.
That said, not all polling relates to matters of earth-shattering consequence. In 2000 Gallup did a Halloween-themed survey of the populace. Not surprisingly two-thirds of Americans responded that they would be giving out candy to trick-or-treaters, and more than three-quarters said that kids in the household would be wearing a costume. Nothing really surprising in those results. But the survey also revealed that the percentage of American adults that believed in ghosts had increased over two decades from 11% in 1978 to 31% then. While no recent polling has been published on the topic, if that trend continued that means that today more than half of us are looking under the bed.
More recently polling regarding our current situation has led to factual confirmation of anecdotal trends. While Americans usually eat out 4 to 5 times per week, the lockdown has unsurprisingly changed that. Now 60% report cooking at home more. At the same time, about 30% say they are snacking more, with 25% thinking more about food than usual. As to what else we are doing besides eating and thinking about eating, more than 50% say that their evenings are spent with family and/or watching TV. A few read (6%), a few do needlepoint (3%), a few play cards (1%). And perhaps unsurprisingly nearly twice as many men (13%) as women (7%) say their favorite thing to do in the evening is rest or relax. Note that Dad is likely snoozing on the couch while saying he is watching TV with the family, which screws up the results.
Those findings are enlightening if not terribly specific. What we need are some more targeted polls that focus on specific parts of our lives. In that vein last year Harris conducted a survey on behalf of California Pizza Kitchen. While the topic may have been narrowly focused, there's no reason to think that the results themselves were skewed. So I'll take it at face value that 69% of Americans prefer to eat their pizza hot vs. cold, that 65% believe that pizza is an acceptable breakfast food, and that 25% of Americans would be willing to go a date just to have someone buy them pizza. And lest you think none of this involves social policy, it's worth noting that 38% of Americans believe that pineapple on pizza should be illegal. Movements have begun with less conviction.
-END-
Marc Wollin of Bedford likes spinach on pizza. His column appears regularly in The Record-Review, The Scarsdale Inquirer and online at http://www.glancingaskance.blogspot.com/, as well as via Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
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