The level of demand for sociological surveys has increased from 69% to 84% over the recent two years.
MOSCOW, November 13, 2015. Russian Public Opinion Research Centre (VCIOM) presents the data of the survey devoted to the following questions: how much Russians trust in sociological survey; whether they think it is important to conduct the surveys; how they explain the discrepancy between the pre-election survey data and the final election results.
Today more Russians feel the need for conducting the public opinion polls than two years ago (84% in 2015; 69% in 2013); this record is close to a ten-year record (85% in 2005). Those who share this point of view think that sociological surveys help certain persons learning the public opinion on particular issues in general (37%), informing the authorities about the social problems (34%). Those who think that social surveys are useless (12%) say that they are senseless and cannot influence the situation in the country (however, the share of such respondents have decreased from 61% to 37%); and they are nothing but a pure formality (28%).
The level of confidence in public opinion surveys is high: 71% of Russians believe that sociological surveys’ data reflects actual public opinion (to compare: 66% in 2013 and 76% in 2005). They are opposed by 23% of respondents (35% of adherents of non-parliamentary parties; 33% of LDPR electorate).
Discrepancy between the pre-election data and final election results is due to the dishonest responses of respondents (36%) and falsified election results (36%). Sociologists are rarely suspected of falsifying the election results (19%). A further 17% consider that the data obtained during the surveys may be inaccurate due to inaccurate methods.
The VCIOM opinion poll was conducted November 7 to 8, 2015; 1600 respondents were interviewed in 130 settlements in 46 regions of Russia. The margin of error does not exceed 3.5%.
Today many public opinion polls on different topics are being conducted. In your opinion, do we need public opinion surveys or not? (closed-ended question, one answer, %) | |||||
| 2005 | 2008 | 2012 | 2013 | 2015 |
Definitely, yes | 38 | 24 | 27 | 23 | 44 |
Rather yes | 47 | 52 | 44 | 46 | 40 |
Rather no | 7 | 8 | 11 | 10 | 8 |
Definitely no | 1 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 4 |
Don’t know | 8 | 15 | 16 | 19 | 4 |
Why do you think so? (open-ended question, any number of answers, % of those who believe that opinion polls are needed) | |||
| 2012 | 2013 | 2015 |
It is important to know the public opinion to understand what people think | 42 | 49 | 37 |
The authorities should know the public opinion to solve the problems | 40 | 30 | 34 |
It is an opportunity for people to express their point of view | – | – | 9 |
Public opinion polls are important for statistical purposes | 3 | 5 | 3 |
They are interesting | 5 | 2 | 1 |
Other | 0 | 1 | 2 |
Don’t know | 11 | 14 | 17 |
Why do you think so? (open-ended question, any number of answers, % of those who believe that opinion polls are not needed) | |||
| 2012 | 2013 | 2015 |
They are useless and do not influence the situation in the country | 38 | 61 | 37 |
This is nothing but a pure formality; the results of the opinion polls are needed only for reporting | 19 | 15 | 28 |
I do not trust the results of the polls | 19 | 9 | 9 |
Not everyone answers the questions honestly | 8 | 7 | 4 |
The method of surveys does not allow to reflect the opinion of the entire population | 11 | 2 | 4 |
Other | 1 | 2 | 1 |
Don’t know | 5 | 6 | 19 |
In your opinion, do the results of the public opinion poll reflect the real opinion of people, or not? (closed-ended question, one answer, %) | |||||||
| 2005 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2012 | 2013 | 2015 |
Definitely, yet | 25 | 14 | 18 | 18 | 16 | 15 | 29 |
Rather yes | 51 | 55 | 49 | 50 | 51 | 51 | 42 |
Rather no | 12 | 13 | 16 | 17 | 21 | 15 | 16 |
Definitely no | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 7 |
Don’t know | 10 | 17 | 14 | 12 | 8 | 15 | 6 |
The results of pre-election opinion polls do not always go against the results of elections. In your opinion, what is the reason why? (closed-ended question, not more than four answers) | |
| Total respondents |
People being polled are not honest. What they say differs from what they vote for | 36 |
The election results are falsified; they do not reflect the public opinion | 36 |
The data are being falsified by sociologists in order to assign high ratings to those candidates who paid for that | 19 |
Sociologists do not use accurate methods which allows forecasting the results of elections properly | 17 |
Don’t know | 16 |
Note: Using materials from the site www.wciom.ru or wciom.com, as well as distributed by VCIOM, the reference to the source (or hyperlink for the electronic media) is obligatory!