Talk:Response bias

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[edit] Yes, Prime Minister

There is a perfect demonstration of this phenomenon, and also of leading questions, here, from Yes, Prime Minister. Sir Humphrey Appleby has been asked to rubbish an opinion poll which suggests that most British people are in favour of national service. To illustrate how little weight he places in opinion polls, he asks the Prime Minister's assistant one set of questions ("Do you think young people welcome some structure and leadership in their lives?", "Do they respond to a challenge?") and then another ("Do you think it's wrong to force people to take arms against their will?", "Are you worried about the danger of war?"). To each question the answer is yes, and the conclusions are contradictory. It is a classic piece of writing, comedy or otherwise-wise.

I mention this because it might have a place in the article, but I suspect that non-UK readers will revert it away, on the assumption that it is a tiny insignificant trivial nothing, in the same way that all the references to American television mean nothing outside of the US. And also I suspect that some people will feel that it is trivial to use a television programme to illustrate such a weighty subject. Ashley Pomeroy 19:27, 26 March 2007 (UTC)

I don't think it would hurt, if worded clearly it should provide a good example. Richard001 05:16, 24 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Non response bias

Since this redirects here, should it be described as well? There's also a extra sentence at the end talking about self-selection which I'm not sure is relevant here or not. Is self-selection a form of response bias? I'm more familiar with the terms 'non-response bias' and 'self selection', and most of what this article describes is what I know as 'question effects' or 'interviewer effects'. Richard001 05:16, 24 April 2007 (UTC)