What we learned about online nonprobability polls

[Mosby]

For decades the gold standard for public opinion surveys has been the probability poll, where a sample of randomly selected adults is polled and results are used to measure public opinion across an entire population. But the cost of these traditional polls is growing each year, leading many pollsters to turn to online nonprobability surveys, which do not rely on random sampling and instead recruit through ads, pop-up solicitations and other approaches.

The advantages of these online surveys are obvious – they are fast and relatively inexpensive, and the technology for them is pervasive. But are they accurate? Pew Research Center undertook a study to answer this question. Courtney Kennedy, director of survey research, explains what we found.

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/05/02/q-a-online-nonprobability-polls/

[xocet]

1. Interesting article...

Fact Tank - News in the Numbers
May 2, 2016
What we learned about online nonprobability polls
By Courtney Kennedy and Andrea Caumont

...

So does this report suggest that nonprobability samples do just as well as probability-based samples?

This report focuses on variation within the online nonprobability space; the study wasn’t intended to answer the question of which is more accurate, nonprobability or probability surveys. While we did include the probability-based ATP (American Trends Panel) in the study, the ATP is not typical in its design. A rigorous comparison of nonprobability and probability samples would need to encompass a wider range of probability-based polls, including random-digit-dial telephone surveys.

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http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/05/02/q-a-online-nonprobability-polls/