lsanderson | Don't Believe the Polling on Gay Marriage!

Researchers have known for years about the difficulties of relying on such polling to anticipate behavior. Some of the earliest evidence came in the early 1930s, when Stanford researcher, R. T. Lapiere, traveled with two Chinese friends across America at a time of heightened anti-Chinese sentiment. The trio visited 250 hotels and restaurants across the country, asking to be served at each. To Lapiere’s surprise, all but one establishment admitted them as patrons. But when he contacted those places months later asking them if they served Chinese people, 92 percent said no. The researcher concluded that polls about social attitudes may be more likely to reflect how someone feels than what a person will do. Moar