“It is increasingly difficult to get truly random samples, mainly because people are reluctant to respond to polls,” says a Duke professor of statistical science. “At the same time, big data from social media and online surveying offer potentially huge sample sizes, but with a significant risk that the resulting data are not representative of the whole population.”
Polling Reliability
Don’t over-rely on polling this election season
“It is increasingly difficult to get truly random samples, mainly because people are reluctant to respond to polls,” says a Duke professor of statistical science. “At the same time, big data from social media and online surveying offer potentially huge sample sizes, but with a significant risk that the resulting data are not representative of the whole population.”
Jerry Reiter in The Chronicle