You’re assuming that the set of people surveyed was truly random, but it never is—people who don’t like answering surveys are always underrepresented (obviously), and the article isn’t specific about how people were recruited for this one. There isn’t enough information to tell how much skew might have been introduced as a result. Surveys are always kind of iffy as information sources: not meaningless, but with a lot of subtle noise in the signal.
The skew is something they’re supposed to take into account, if they realize a given factor is important. Models are seldom perfect, and people can be incompetent or self-centered even when they’re not being actively malicious. I think you’re overestimating both the quality of the statistical models and the purity of the motives behind this survey.
You’re assuming that the set of people surveyed was truly random, but it never is—people who don’t like answering surveys are always underrepresented (obviously), and the article isn’t specific about how people were recruited for this one. There isn’t enough information to tell how much skew might have been introduced as a result. Surveys are always kind of iffy as information sources: not meaningless, but with a lot of subtle noise in the signal.
The skew is something they take in account. They have models to take this into account.
The skew is something they’re supposed to take into account, if they realize a given factor is important. Models are seldom perfect, and people can be incompetent or self-centered even when they’re not being actively malicious. I think you’re overestimating both the quality of the statistical models and the purity of the motives behind this survey.