Talk:Newspoll

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Is criticisms such as whats here noteworthy? Timeshift 02:29, 10 November 2007 (UTC)

A controversy section in a stub-article looks like the article was created as an excuse to put in the controversy. (Ie, POV, if you follow.) Suggestion: Write it up and post it here, in Talk. If/when the main article is fleshed out, you/anyone can drop it back into the article. Is that reasonable? -- PaulxSA 09:45, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

Approval ratings and Preferred Prime Minister are different
I just carried out a major cleanup of the records section, editing most of the records, though if someone wants to make further progress then putting them in tables (with clear explanation) might be a good idea.

Most of the problems arose from results for approval ratings being mixed up with results from preferred prime minister scores, and the latter called "approval ratings" although they are not. They are different. An approval rating is obtained by asking the respondent whether they approve or disapprove of the performance of a given leader. A preferred prime minister score is obtained by asking the respondent which out of the Prime Minister and the Opposition Leader would make the best PM. It is possible that a voter will approve of the Opposition Leader while thinking the incumbent PM is better at PM. It is also possible that a voter will disapprove of the Opposition Leader while preferring them to become PM because they dislike the Government more.

To give an example, when Nelson polled the worst-ever preferred prime-minister score of 7%, this was not because the voters greatly disliked him. It was because they did not know him very well, he wasn't especially popular, and he was up against a new and very popular Prime Minister. His approval rating at the time was 29 and his disapproval 38 with 33% uncommitted.Therealsleepycat (talk) 13:59, 3 February 2013 (UTC)