Consider how different our country would be if Abraham Lincoln simply respected the prevailing opinion of his day rather than challenge this country to imagine itself differently. Public officials can come to regard polls and surveys as quarterly election returns, leading them to place too much emphasis on opinions and immediate emotional reactions. Such polls can distract leaders from a long-term view of the public interest. Further, as business leaders have learned, an overreliance on polls to test new products and ideas can supplant the intuitive judgment and creative experimentation that organizations need to thrive. Ignoring Complexities Polls are fickle.
Polls are less useful for understanding the public's views on complex issues.
Education reform strategies, for example, require not only a familiarity with the issues, but also an understanding of all the consequences and trade-offs surrounding them. If the respondent is not well informed and does not hold a firm view on the subject, that person's view is likely to change with new information. Polls are not the best means of testing the waters for change. People tend to be skeptical of new ways of doing things until the new ideas become popular. But polls neither allow for this initial skepticism nor accurately predict what changes will eventually be embraced.