Unbelievable?

[XFool]

One in four Britons believe in QAnon-linked theories – survey

The Guardian

Significant numbers believe in secret governing elite and that Covid was released on purpose

I never know what to think about this sort of thing. Should we just laugh? Or should we worry? What does it mean? Does it matter?

[UncleEbenezer]

How to run a survey: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0ZZJXw4MTA

[Gengulphus]

How to run a survey: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0ZZJXw4MTA

Thanks for that reminder! :-)

But I suspect there is something even simpler going on here - the clue being "The findings are based on an online survey ..." in the Guardian article (my bold). Imagine that you believe in QAnon-linked theories and you encounter an online survey about them - how likely are you to respond? Then imagine that you don't believe in them and encounter an online survey about them - how likely are you to respond in that case? I'd guess that the answers are that those who believe in them are likely to regard it as an important issue, so are pretty likely to respond, while the reaction of many people who don't believe in them will be "crackpot theories are ten a penny - not worth wasting my time on", making them pretty unlikely to respond. Instant bias in the results, even if the survey-runners have no preference for either of the outcomes.

And if they do have such a preference, they can amplify that effect by saying upfront that they only want a few minutes of your time, then have dozens of questions in the survey, so that responders who don't feel strongly about the issue are likely to think partway through "They're wasting too much of my time..." and give up. And they can choose to place the survey on web pages where it is more likely to be encountered by those with their preferred attitude. (Or even if they don't have a preference, that decision might be made for them by differing attitudes of web page owners towards hosting the survey...)

Gengulphus

[XFool]

How to run a survey: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0ZZJXw4MTA

Thanks for that reminder! :-)

But I suspect there is something even simpler going on here - the clue being "The findings are based on an online survey ..." in the Guardian article (my bold). Imagine that you believe in QAnon-linked theories and you encounter an online survey about them - how likely are you to respond? Then imagine that you don't believe in them and encounter an online survey about them - how likely are you to respond in that case? I'd guess that the answers are that those who believe in them are likely to regard it as an important issue, so are pretty likely to respond, while the reaction of many people who don't believe in them will be "crackpot theories are ten a penny - not worth wasting my time on", making them pretty unlikely to respond. Instant bias in the results, even if the survey-runners have no preference for either of the outcomes.

Yes, well spotted. And comforting in its way, nevertheless, there was this linked article:

QAnon conspiracy theory gaining ground in UK, analysis shows

The Guardian

Followers believe that Donald Trump is waging secret war against ritual child abusers

"The Guardian tracked five slogans associated with QAnon shared by UK-run Facebook pages over the past year, and found interactions on posts containing these keywords increased fivefold between April and August, the last full month for which data was available."

The objection here could be: "Like goes with like".

It would be interesting to hear the results of properly run, objective, national survey.

[XFool]

More hopeful news?

‘Culture wars’ are fought by tiny minority – UK study

The Guardian

Report by the More in Common thinktank found that 12% of voters accounted for 50% of all social media users