Columnist: Polls can influence voters

Answer choices

1. A

   Correct61% picked this

   Few people are influenced by the results of polls published during the two weeks immediately

   Why this is right

   This has the effect of downplaying the significance of some of the author's evidence as well as helping us to argue the Anti-Conclusion. In the evidence, the author said that polls can influence voters' decisions and might distort the outcome of an election, but if, as this answer says, few people are influenced by last-minute polls, then we don't really need to worry much about last-minute polls changing how the voting would go down. (If you're being a stickler, "few" just means less than 50% and if even 10% of the electorate was influenced / convinced by last minute polling, that could easily swing the balance of a tight election. So this answer is pretty lame.) This answer, though, at least gives us something to say. We can say, "Yes even though polls can influence and polls can distort and last-minute polls don't leave time for rebuttals, we should still allow polls during the final week because few people are influenced by last-minute polls and so there's no compelling reason to abridge freedom of expression".

   Skill tested: Weaken · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.

   61%
2. B

   Too Weak9% picked this

   The publication of poll results would not decide the winner of an

   This is just saying "if the race isn't close, then the influence of polling results is not going to decide the winner". Okay, but what about races that are close? Maybe those are more common and polling is liable to tip the scales and thus the author is right? This gives us a small way to argue "we should keep allowing last-minute polling, since it won't decide landslide elections", but that's a weak rejoinder.

   9%
3. C

   Strengthens7% picked this

   The publication of poll results may remove some voters' motivation to vote because of the certainty that a

   This is reinforcing the potential influence on voters that voting results can have. This basically expresses the author's fear -- she's worried that a last minute-poll would unreliably say a certain candidate will win, lead to demotivating some voters, and thus distort the outcome of an election.

   7%
4. D

   Strengthens, if anything8% picked this

   The publication of poll results in the last weeks before an election draws attention to candidates'

   I can see considering this answer by thinking, "We should keep last-minute polling, because otherwise voters are getting the crucial information that certain candidates are swelling in popularity." But two things: - is it actually common sense to think that voters need to know that candidate has had a late gain in popularity? one would hope that voting behavior is based more on an assessment of a candidate's policies and temperament, than on their late-gained popularity. - are these candidates actually having late gains in popularity, or is the poll just making it seem like that's happening? We were told that these are much less reliable than the public thinks. This answer suggests that last-minute polling could give off the (potentially misleading) impression that a candidate is getting really popular, which could distort the outcome of an election, if people's voting choice depends in part on the popularity of candidates.

   8%
5. E

   Out of Scope: better informed14% picked this

   Countries in which such a ban is in effect do not generally have better informed citizens than do countries in which such

   Our author isn't proposing the ban because she thinks that the voters will be better informed, but because she thinks it minimizes the risk of them being misled by an unreliable poll result. Those aren't synonyms. "Not being misled by fake information about how popular each candidate is" is different from "knowing more about the issues surrounding this election".

   14%