E-Polls facts & stats

Question 1

What share of people actually responded to a typical Pew Research telephone poll in 2018?

Accepted Answer

about 6%. That was down from about 9% a few years earlier, as robocalls and spam-flagging made people warier of unknown numbers.

Question 2

In that study, what share of respondents were flagged as "bogus" using simple trap questions (like claiming to use a made-up social media app)?

Accepted Answer

18%. Trap questions ask about things that are virtually impossible to be true, so a "yes" answer signals a careless or fake respondent.

Question 3

In that same study, about what share of completed surveys failed at least one automated fraud pre-screening check?

Accepted Answer

nearly half (about 48%). The most common failure was a low-quality open-ended text answer, followed by "yea-saying" (agreeing with everything asked).

Question 4

Across the entire sample, what share of respondents were ultimately matched to a valid voter file record?

Accepted Answer

36%. That means voter-file matching would have thrown out the large majority of the sample, including many honest respondents.

The basics