On voting for action on fictional places

[andrewducker]

30% of Republicans are in favour of bombing Agrabah, the city from Aladdin.

44% of Democrats are in favour of accepting refugees from there.

Which, I think, largely tells us that most people answering polls do not expect polls to fuck them around, and that if they are thinking "Hang on, is that really the name of the place that I saw on the news last night?" are likely to assume that they have made a mistake, rather than the poll-makers having got things wrong, either deliberately or accidentally. Which, largely, doesn't seem like a bad bet to make while you're in mid-conversation with them.

Comments

[gominokouhai]

Wonder what percentage of Republicans and Democrats haven't seen Aladdin and aren't aware that it's a fictional city.

[andrewducker]

That's rather the point - if I asked you whether you thought that the number of immigrants from Latveria was too high since they joined the EU, your answers could be:
Yes.
No.
Fuck off, that's where Dr Doom comes from.
I have no idea where that is, so I refuse to answer.

Most people who don't know that (3) is the right answer are going to opt for (1) or (2) depending on their general feelings about immigrants from the EU. Pretty much nobody says "I feel underinformed about this topic, and decline to make a moral choice about it."

[gominokouhai]

It's not really a problem with polls, though---although of course the polls don't help. Answers to your sample question should (probably) include:

1. Fuck off, that's where Dr Doom comes from
2. I understand that you're asking about a fictional universe, so I shall answer in context
3. Yes (which the pollster marks down as: "I like to answer poll questions! yay! My opinion is baseless!)
4. No (which the pollster marks down as: "I like to answer poll questions! yay! My opinion is baseless!)
5. I have insufficient knowledge to form an opinion on this question

The problem is human nature. Almost nobody will answer with response #(5). And the pollster doesn't care because his job is to get lots of responses.

[redbird]

It's also that we've been trained that "don't know" means "I haven't decided" ("which of these candidates would you vote for?") rather than "I don't understand the question," and that the poll-takers aren't willing to answer "who is Lindsay Graham?" or "where is Agrabah? What are those people fleeing from?" (That's not just about "there is no such place." I am sure there along with people whose answer depends on whether they think the refugees are Christian, there are some who would be willing to take in people whose city had been destroyed by an earthquake, but not people whose city was destroyed by bombing.)

Come to think of it, some of those 44% "yes" are probably thinking "I've never heard of Agrabah, but we should accept refugees from anywhere if they need sanctuary" and even "if refugees are somehow coming here from a fictional universe, they really need help, let them in." And "Superman was a refugee, and that's worked out pretty well."