Regarding your weekly polls, as you know the manner of asking a question can determine its answer. If a question is phrased in a \u201cneutral\u201d manner, you will get real opinions. However, people prefer to answer yes when the way the question is phrased suggests that yes is the best answer. The latest poll question is, \u201cIs the MPLA’s decision to have the pozzolan on Pagan Island be studied first before awarding a mining contract the proper course of action?\u201d Of course, the \u201cspur of the moment\u201d answer will be \u201cyes,\u201d because the phrasing of the question implies that no studies have been done nor information gathered, which is not the case according to the media. <\/p>\n
A better phrasing of the same question might have been: \u201cDo you approve of MPLA’s decision to have more studies of pozzolan mining on Pagan Island before awarding a contract?\u201d Or if you had written it this way, “Do you agree with MPLAs decision to require still more studies of pozzolan mining on Pagan Island before awarding a mining contract?\u201d might have elicited different responses.<\/p>\n
Be aware that the way questions are phrased very much determines the answers. Pollsters are most conscious of this and are careful to phrase questions in such a way that the answers will support their position. <\/p>\n
I request that your questions be phrased in such a way that they are not \u201cleading\u201d or suggesting a certain response. An example would be “Do you support a bill to increase benefits to (education, the elderly, the disabled, the retirees)?\u201d Of course the answer will be \u201cyes.\u201d If you add on this phrase, \u201cif it will double your taxes?\u201d The answers may not be the same. So, please, try to make your questions \u201cneutral.\u201d <\/p>\n
If a question were phrased like this… \u201cWould you favor mining pozzolan on Pagan Island if the revenue share to the CNMI government would be earmarked to fund salaries for DPS, CHC and other essential services and to pay down the government debt to the retirement fund?\u201d This question might generate \u201cyes\u201d answers also. Thank you. <\/p>\n
Angie Sills
\nThrough e-mail<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Regarding your weekly polls, as you know the manner of asking a question can determine its answer. If a question is phrased in a \u201cneutral\u201d manner, you will get real opinions. However, people prefer to answer yes when the way the question is phrased suggests that yes is the best answer. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-86355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86355"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86355\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}