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On Thu, 6 Mar 2025 15:22:46 -0800,  Alan says...  

> Subject: Re: Pollsters And Leading Questions Designed To Influence Answers
> From: Alan <nuh-uh@nope.com>
> Newsgroups: alt.politics.trump, alt.politics.liberalism, alt.politics.democrats, alt.politics.usa.republican, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, can.politics
> 
> User-Agent: Mozilla Thunderbird
> Organization: A noiseless patient Spider
> Date: Thu, 6 Mar 2025 15:22:46 -0800
> 
> On 2025-03-06 15:02, AlleyCat wrote:
> > 
> > On Thu, 6 Mar 2025 10:05:59 -0500 (EST),  Bradley K. Sherman says...
> > 
> >> Trump's Approval Rating Goes Underwater
> > 
> > What...
> 
> ...makes it necessary for you to double (or some times more) post

I didn't post this twice.

I POSTED it once. 

This is a post:

Subject: Trump's Numbers Down? - Pollsters And Leading Questions Designed To Influence Answers
From: AlleyCat <katt@gmail.com>

THIS is a REPLY:

Pollsters And Leading Questions Designed To Influence Answers
From: AlleyCat <katt@gmail.com>

On Thu, 6 Mar 2025 10:05:59 -0500 (EST),  Bradley K. Sherman says...  

Learn the difference, dickhead.

=====

Post:

What Is A Leading Question?

Let's begin by explaining what a leading question is. 

These are questions that push, or lead, a survey respondent into answering a question in a particular way. This usually occurs because of how they are framed and the words that they use.

Instead of receiving a response that is natural and unbiased, the question will receive answers that have been influenced.

Leading questions are often the result of the survey creator's biases. These can be conscious or unconscious biases and having leading questions in your survey will lower the quality and usefulness 
of the data that you collect.

It can also lead to more serious problems in the future. If responses are biased but important decisions are made because of them, this can have an adverse effect on a business and the decision it 
makes.
Characteristics Of A Leading Question

It can often be difficult to tell if a question you have written is a leading question or not.

Most leading questions share similar characteristics, however, so keep the following in mind while you write your survey and assess your questions.

The common characteristics include:

Intentionally framing the questions to create bias and get the answers the survey creator desires
Including conjecture and assumption in the question
Writing questions that need a respondent's personal input 
Questions that focus on the consequences of an action
Forcefully asking for feedback

Some of these characteristics can be intentional, but many can slide into your wording without any conscious effort.
Types Of Leading Questions 

Let's now look at the types of leading questions. We will also give examples to make these easier to understand.


1. Assumption-Based Leading Questions

These questions involve the preconceived notions of the survey creator. They commonly occur in surveys created to assess a consumer's experience and opinion of a service, product, or process. 

For example:

How satisfied are you with our product/service/process?

This is a leading question because it assumes that the respondent was satisfied.

Although the respondent may be able to give a low score to say that they weren't that satisfied, they can't respond to confirm their dissatisfaction. Instead, you should ask "Were you satisfied with 
our product?"

Which product feature was the most useful?

This question assumes that the respondent found the features to be useful.

They may have been completely unsatisfied with the product and found it to be completely useless, but the only way they will be able to answer the question will be to select a feature.


2. Leading Questions With Interconnected Statements

This type of leading question combines two statements that are closely related. The first of these is usually a statement that puts forward a particular point of view.

This can implant a bias in the head of the respondent and influence how they answer the question. The second statement is then the question itself.

This type of question is commonly seen in surveys that ask for respondents" opinions on social and community issues. 

For example:

Many employees are happy to work overtime. Do you feel the same way?

This question starts by planting the idea that more employees are willing to work overtime than aren"t. It aims to get the respondent to agree with the opinions of others.

Instead, the question should ask "Would you be willing to work overtime?"
What is a Leading Question?


3. Direct Implication Leading Questions

Direct implication leading questions make respondents think about the future and what might happen if another condition is met first.

Instead of just asking a respondent's opinion about something, it asks them to consider their reaction to something instead. You will often see this type of question used for experience-based 
questions.

For example:

If you like this movie, will you recommend it to your friends?

The question is whether the respondent will recommend the movie to their friends, but this is based on the implication that they will enjoy it.

It assumes there will be enjoyment and doesn't give the respondent a chance to consider their reaction if they don't enjoy the movie.

The question should be worded more simply as "Will you recommend this movie to your friends?" and asked only after the movie has been seen.


4. Coercive Leading Questions

These are some of the easiest leading questions to spot. They force the respondent to give a specific answer, which is usually a positive one.

They're commonly used in customer satisfaction surveys and are ended with question tags.

For example:

You were satisfied with our service, weren't you?

This question is quite aggressively worded and doesn't give the respondent much opportunity to say that they weren't satisfied.

The negative question tag at the end is especially leading. The question instead should read "Were you satisfied with our service?"


5. Scale-Based Leading Questions

These questions are a little different from the other leading questions. The actual question itself can be worded quite evenly, but the answers are unfairly weighted towards specific responses. 

For example:

How satisfied were you with our products?

Extremely satisfied
Satisfied
Somewhat satisfied
Somewhat dissatisfied
Dissatisfied

Here, we have five possible answers that are heavily weighted towards being positive.

Only two of the five can be considered negative and the strongest of these 'dissatisfied" is not as strong as the strongest positive answer "extremely satisfied." Instead, the answers should read 
something similar to:

Extremely satisfied
Satisfied
Neither satisfied nor dissatisfied
Dissatisfied
Extremely dissatisfied

Final Thoughts

In this article, we explained what a leading question is, explained their characteristics, and the different types of leading questions.

We also gave several examples so you could see leading questions in action. We hope this answered your questions.

=====

Trump still President!

Donald Trump is STILL the 47th U.S. president.

A Second Trump Administration is STILL going!



======================================================================================================================


Internet Trolls Are Narcissists, Psychopaths, And Sadists Trolls Will Lie, Exaggerate, And Offend TO GET A RESPONSE  [so true]

Loser
AlleyPussyBitch
Pole-puffing no-fight squat-to-piss shrieking estrogen-oozing 
fairy
Pussey

Of course, these never work, AS INTENDED.

=====

An Internet troll is someone who enters an online discussion and posts comments designed to upset or disrupt the conversation.

"Dark Tetrad" personality traits include narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and sadism. 

(someone's been reading my possstss againnnnn)

In a study of 1200 people, Dark Tetrad scores were highest among people who said trolling was their favorite Internet activity.

In this month's issue of Personality and Individual Differences, a study was published that confirms what we all suspected: Internet trolls are horrible people.

Let's start by getting our definitions straight: An Internet troll is someone who comes into a discussion and posts comments designed to upset or disrupt the conversation. Often, in fact, it seems 
like there is no real purpose behind their comments except to upset everyone else involved. Trolls will lie, exaggerate, and offend to get a response.

What kind of person would do this? Some Canadian researchers decided to find out.
Study: Internet Trolls and Dark Tetrad Personality Traits

They conducted two online studies with over 1,200 people, giving personality tests to each subject along with a survey about their Internet commenting behavior. They were looking for evidence that 
linked trolling with the "Dark Tetrad" of personality traits: narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and sadism.

They found that Dark Tetrad scores were highest among people who said trolling was their favorite Internet activity. To get an idea of how much more prevalent these traits were among Internet trolls, 
one can refer to tables from the paper showing low Dark Tetrad scores for everyone in the study ... except the trolls. Their scores for all four traits soar on the chart. The relationship between 
trolling and the Dark Tetrad is so significant that the authors write in their paper:

"... the associations between sadism and GAIT (Global Assessment of Internet Trolling) scores were so strong that it might be said that online trolls are prototypical everyday sadists." [emphasis 
added]

Trolls truly enjoy making you feel bad. To quote the authors once more (because this is a truly quotable article): "Both trolls and sadists feel sadistic glee at the distress of others. Sadists just 
want to have fun ... and the Internet is their playground!"

The next time you encounter a troll online, remember:

These trolls are some truly difficult people.
It is your suffering that brings them pleasure, so the best thing you can do is ignore them.