• About Us
    • Fact Checking Policy
    • Ownership & funding information
    • Volunteer
  • Subscribe
  • Letter submission
    • Submissions Policy
  • Contact Us
The Online Citizen Asia
  • Opinion
    • Editorial
    • Commentaries
    • Letters
    • Comments
  • Current Affairs
    • Singapore
    • Malaysia
    • Indonesia
    • China
    • ASEAN
    • Asia
    • International
  • Finance
    • Economics
    • Labour
    • Property
    • Business
  • Community
    • Arts & Culture
    • Consumer Watch
    • NGO
    • Lifestyle
    • Travel
  • Politics
    • Civil Society
    • Parliament
    • Transport
    • Education
    • Environment
    • Health
    • Housing
  • Law & Order
    • Legislation
    • Court Cases
No Result
View All Result
  • Opinion
    • Editorial
    • Commentaries
    • Letters
    • Comments
  • Current Affairs
    • Singapore
    • Malaysia
    • Indonesia
    • China
    • ASEAN
    • Asia
    • International
  • Finance
    • Economics
    • Labour
    • Property
    • Business
  • Community
    • Arts & Culture
    • Consumer Watch
    • NGO
    • Lifestyle
    • Travel
  • Politics
    • Civil Society
    • Parliament
    • Transport
    • Education
    • Environment
    • Health
    • Housing
  • Law & Order
    • Legislation
    • Court Cases
No Result
View All Result
The Online Citizen Asia
No Result
View All Result

What’s in a poll?

by onlinecitizen
16/07/2014
in Commentaries
Reading Time: 7 mins read
0

By Lim Jialiang
One common narrative that we have heard constantly from those in the pro-banning camp is that this is in line with the “dominant social norms” or “community values” that Singaporeans have. Minister Yaacob Ibrahim mentions that the “prevailing norms, which the overwhelming majority of Singaporeans accept, support teaching children about conventional families but not about alternative, non-traditional families, which is what the books in question are about.”
When pressed for substantiation, this is most commonly met with statements saying that polling data supports such an observation. Sociologist Tan Ern Ser said that “Recent surveys have shown that the majority of Singaporeans disapprove of same-sex relations.” However, these are always mentioned in passing, and never cited in detail. This post is an attempt to critically examine this claim.
The most recent example is a working paper dated June here, written by Mathew Mathews, Mohammad Khamsya Bin Khidzer, and Teo Kay Key from the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS). With a quick glance, the survey looks legitimate: in terms of its sample size, it has tried its best to make sure that it is well-represented in terms of age, race, and religion. It was also done by “a reputable marketing company.” However, despite these markers of legitimacy, the survey is riddled with bad phrasing, has imbalanced response scales, biased questions and a lack of nuance, all of which have the potential to skew results.

Bad Phrasing

what is in a poll 1
Questions in this survey are often made without definitional basis. For example, in section 4, it was asked whether “increasing religiosity among religious groups would harm religious harmony.” What exactly is used in this case to quantify/define “religiosity? Is it a performative element, where people are spending more time on religious activities? Or is it one of fundamentalism, where people are becoming more literalist and stricter in terms of how they practice their religion? Both are very different things, and require further explanation on the part of the surveyor.
Moreover, it is important that the respondents, not the surveyor, who should determine if they feel that there is increasing “religiosity”. As a result, this question is double barrelled, for there are two things that require answering in this situation: “increasing religiosity” and “harm religious harmony.” As a result, doing the survey would mean that you have to answer the affirmative or the negative to two separate categories. You could well agree that there is increasing religiosity, but that it would not harm religious harmony. You could also feel that there is no increasing religiosity, and the latter question is irrelevant. This, instead, should have been a two-step question.

  1. Do you fee if there is increasing religiosity in Singapore? (Y/N)
  2. If yes, would this harm religious harmony?

Imbalanced Response scale

The response scale has also been lumped together, creating a false impression of homogeneity. There is a significant difference between someone who “strongly disagrees” and “disagrees”, which has been homogenised into one category for the presentation of survey results. Surveyors should also always balance the scale by having an equal amount of positive and negative responses so as to not skew the results. In survey-speak, this is having a good symmetry in responses. The lack of a neutral option is a “forced choice” situation, where the respondent is forced to pick a side. There is nothing wrong with this, especially for controversial and difficult questions where neutral might be the easy way out. However, having three positive options and two negative options in this case will prejudice individuals and make them select the affirmative more than the negative.
what is in a poll 2
Moreover, the scale used in terms of the survey is very vague, with terms like “somewhat” or “quite” appearing. For example, quite appears to be used as the middle order option in the image above, but linguistically, it denotes a greater intensity in terms of a person’s feelings. For example, describing a person as “angry” or “quite angry” are two entirely different things. Whilst this confusion might be somewhat avoided if the survey was presented numerically, where 1 is not affected at all and 5 is very affected, this would be very confusing indeed if it were presented in text, which it was.

Biased Questions

what is in a poll 3
The table which supposedly contained the smoking gun as to how conservative Singaporeans were is in fact the most flawed segment out of the entire survey. Firstly, the non-neutral and morally-laden language of “wrongness” prejudices respondents, which inclines the readers to give socially desirable answers instead of legitimising morally undesirable acts. This section of the survey also narrows their choices down to just three options:

  1. Not wrong most of the time or not wrong at all
  2. Only wrong sometimes
  3. Always wrong or almost always wrong

(Most Singaporeans conservative: IPS survey)
The respondents, in this situation, weren’t even allowed to choose an option that the acts presented above were NOT wrong! Moreover, the Working Paper only chooses to show the results when respondents felt that the acts above were “always wrong or almost always wrong.”
The exclusion of data, flawed as it might be, is very apparent where the selection of this response is at a minority. This section of the survey with its culled data, poor phrasing and moralistic overtones obviously show that Singaporeans are highly “morally conservative.” After all, it was designed to prejudice respondents to thinking in that manner, almost as if they were working through a checklist of sin. You would not be blamed if the conclusion drawn is that all the LGBT community seem to do is to have sex, ask for gay marriage and try and adopt babies.

Lacking Nuance

As a result, this survey is hardly a survey on attitudes towards the LGBT community in Singapore, and the lazy questioning lacks nuance. A better way as to measure approval would be to ask the respondent to consider scenarios where he would interact with a member of the LGBT community, rather than the current fixation on sex. These questions can look like this, and given a scale of 1-5, where 1 is strongly disagree and 5 is strongly agree:

  1. If your friend is gay, will you be friends with him?
  2. Would you support a gay president?
  3. Do you think being gay is something that should be made criminal?

Casting homosexuality in the checklist of sin, and focusing on sex as what the survey has done is inadequate in understanding how individuals negotiate with the idea of dealing with a member of the LGBT community in real life.  There are also undertones of the “homosexual lifestyle” when surveys only focus on sex, something which all researchers should avoid, as the LGBT community is similar to us: sex is but a part of their lives, and shouldn’t be the only focus.
There should also be the distinction that the disapproval of homosexuality can be a private or a public conviction, and the former does not necessarily lead to the latter. It does not necessarily translate into a disapproval of sexual minorities gaining rights like anti-discrimination laws.  As a result, it is flawed to draw conclusions that “Singapore” is conservative from surveys like this that ignore the many shades of grey over this contentious issue.

Community Values

People should think twice about whether they would want to legitimise “community values” using a survey like this. By the same logic as Minister Yaacob Ibrahim, we should criminalise “Sex with someone other than your marriage partner”, for adultery is seen as the most morally reprehensible act, even above gay marriage and gay adoptions. This survey ironically shows that we have a diversity of interests in so many matters at hand, but is in this case being used to justify a supposed, dominant “pro-family” stance.  If anything, even a flawed survey like this manages to show the diversity of interests that require balancing.
The beliefs that are reported here have no correlation to actual behaviour. Whilst morality can be an indicator of behaviour, it is by no means fool-proof, and should not be used as a marker for planning social policy. Social reality is messy, confusing, and makes policy difficult to do properly. This is why we must collect data properly and without moralistic prejudice, for it might lead us to draw the wrong conclusions.

For just US$7.50 a month, sign up as a subscriber on The Online Citizen Asia (and enjoy ads-free experience on our site) to support our mission to transform TOC into an alternative mainstream press.
Tags: poll

Related Posts

No Content Available
Subscribe
Connect withD
Login
I allow to create an account
When you login first time using a Social Login button, we collect your account public profile information shared by Social Login provider, based on your privacy settings. We also get your email address to automatically create an account for you in our website. Once your account is created, you'll be logged-in to this account.
DisagreeAgree
Notify of
Connect withD
I allow to create an account
When you login first time using a Social Login button, we collect your account public profile information shared by Social Login provider, based on your privacy settings. We also get your email address to automatically create an account for you in our website. Once your account is created, you'll be logged-in to this account.
DisagreeAgree
0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

Latest posts

Temasek and GIC reportedly in talks with Adani Group accused of “brazen” market manipulation and accounting fraud

Adani Group releases 413-paged response against allegations of “brazen” market manipulation and accounting fraud

30/01/2023
Singapore warns slower economic growth in 2023

Less than 1 in 10 jobs created in first three quarters of 2022 went to Singaporeans?

28/01/2023
Peru Congress rejects president’s plan for early elections

Peru Congress rejects president’s plan for early elections

28/01/2023
UMNO purging members as it sacks former health minister Khairy and suspended ex-defence minister Hishammuddin

UMNO purging members as it sacks former health minister Khairy and suspended ex-defence minister Hishammuddin

28/01/2023
WHO panel in talks on COVID emergency status

WHO panel in talks on COVID emergency status

27/01/2023

Two years after Myanmar coup, UN says situation ‘catastrophic’

27/01/2023
Grab driver supposedly earned $5,227.82 in a week prior CNY, netizens voice worries over his health

Grab driver supposedly earned $5,227.82 in a week prior CNY, netizens voice worries over his health

27/01/2023
Philippines to appeal ICC resumption of drug war probe

ICC grants new inquiry into Manila’s deadly ‘war on drugs’

27/01/2023

Trending posts

Two Indian nationals paid about S$330 and S$730 respectively for forged certificates submitted in their S-Pass application

MOM found issuing EPs meant for foreign PMETs to PRC waitress and general worker

by Correspondent
26/01/2023
40

...

Earning only S$400 a month, delivery-rider turned hawker threw in the towel after two years of running a rojak stall

Earning only S$400 a month, delivery-rider turned hawker threw in the towel after two years of running a rojak stall

by Yee Loon
26/01/2023
24

...

Ho Ching breaks silence over Temasek’s write down of its US$275 million investment in FTX, says it “can afford to be contrarian”

US regulator questions VCs’ due diligence work prior to investing in FTX; Ho Ching says Temasek can afford to be contrarian

by The Online Citizen
24/01/2023
28

...

Indian rupee falls 60% since signing of CECA while Singapore becomes top investor in India

by Correspondent
25/01/2023
59

...

Temasek and GIC reportedly in talks with Adani Group accused of “brazen” market manipulation and accounting fraud

Temasek and GIC reportedly in talks with Adani Group accused of “brazen” market manipulation and accounting fraud

by The Online Citizen
26/01/2023
49

...

What’s in a poll?

by onlinecitizen
16/07/2014
0

...

July 2014
M T W T F S S
 123456
78910111213
14151617181920
21222324252627
28293031  
« Jun   Aug »
  • About Us
  • Subscribe
  • Letter submission
  • Contact Us

© 2006 - 2021 The Online Citizen

No Result
View All Result
  • Opinion
    • Editorial
    • Commentaries
    • Comments
  • Current Affairs
    • Malaysia
    • Indonesia
    • China
    • ASEAN
    • Asia
    • International
  • Finance
    • Economics
    • Labour
    • Property
    • Business
  • Community
    • Civil Society
    • Arts & Culture
    • Consumer Watch
    • NGO
  • Politics
    • Parliament
    • Transport
    • Education
    • Environment
    • Health
    • Housing
  • Law & Order
    • Legislation
    • Court Cases
  • Lifestyle
    • Travel
  • Subscribers login

© 2006 - 2021 The Online Citizen

wpDiscuz