OCTA Research, Pulse Asia warn vs. ‘kalye’ surveys

Research organizations OCTA Research and Pulse Asia on Wednesday warned against misrepresentation in surveys as the 2022 elections nears.

At the Kapihan sa Manila forum, OCTA Research fellow Dr. Guido David said surveys can be misrepresented due to issues in the methodology that was used.

“These other surveys, I mean it's not necessarily fake, they could have conducted it, an online survey or something, but the fact that it can be misrepresented to be of a certain level, which is comparable to survey results of  established companies or firms that use sound methodologies,” he said.

Pulse Asia president Ronald Holmes said that while some surveys follow the norms of  science, some work with different methodology that cannot be counted as representative of the entire country.

For example, Holmes pointed out the survey done by interviewing people on the streets about their opinion or “kalye survey” cannot reflect the opinion of the public.

“Unfortunately, those non-representative surveys have been reported without the details in terms of how the survey was done,” he said.

Holmes said the sampling of the survey respondents should be provided.

OCTA Research fellow  Prof. Ranjit Rye pointed out that survey firms should always disclose the questions, sampling designs, distributions, and methods.

“If the survey company is transparent , when it comes out with a result, it would provide the question that it asked, provide other details, the sampling design, distribution, and the method,” he said.

The groups also noted that online surveys may not be representative of the population as not all internet users are registered voters and respondents may use multiple accounts.—LDF, GMA News