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Poll showing surge in support for Scottish independence was a "sampling error"

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    Poll showing surge in support for Scottish independence was a "sampling error"

    'Sampling error' behind BMG poll putting Scottish independence support on 49% - Business Insider
    Taking a break from contracting

    #2
    Lets hope Scoots can get his Fourth Reich passport quickly as it will be his only way into the EU.

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      #3
      Originally posted by GB9 View Post
      Lets hope Scoots can get his Fourth Reich passport quickly as it will be his only way into the EU.
      I can feel you anger. It makes you strong. Late the hate flow through.
      "Never argue with stupid people, they will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience". Mark Twain

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        #4
        who knows, maybe brexit results were a "sampling error" as well

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          #5
          Yeah it did always look a little on the low side for the Brexit option.

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            #6
            Originally posted by PeterSon55 View Post
            who knows, maybe brexit results were a "sampling error" as well
            Polls always have a sampling error, because of the number of "don't knows" and the number of people who simply lie about their answer (e.g. people who voted Tory but said something else to the pollers, people who voted to leave but said remain to the pollers, people who voted Trump but said "wibble wibble" to pollers). And then you have wierdos (yes, I was going to vote remain, but I saw a straight banana in Aldi on my way to the polling station and changed my mind). Then you have the errors of extrapolating the limited samples (say 1000 or 2000 people) into the population at large. I think a typical poll's margin of error would be around 2-3% - certainly not enough for Sturgeon to stake her political future on.

            However, an actual referendum or election has zero sampling error.

            Nice try though.
            Taking a break from contracting

            Comment


              #7
              It would have been more accurate for the title of the article to say that the variation from previous polls was within sampling error. Saying it was "caused" by sampling error may lead to the (incorrect) inference that the sampling was done incorrectly.

              Curtice's comments are, of course, entirely sensible. It's just the journalist who wrote the piece and the sub-ed responsible for the article heading likely don't understand statistical terminology.

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