Is "Pew Research" reliable?

[Izzyeviel]

I trust Pew - The problem is most people don't understand polling and what the results actually mean. So what happens is that their data gets misused in all sorts of ways and can end up justifying anything.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7FJFuuvxpI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYNKuJvIFpQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0ZZJXw4MTA

Three videos to give you some idea about how polls are used, how they can be interpreted & how you can get them to say whatever.

[Izzyeviel]

An important thing to remember about polls - its not in their interests to fake results or have sloppy methods. They do more then poll about elections they work in so many fields. For them election polling is merely their advertising.

Sometimes they do cock up, sometimes they get a duff sample. Which is why you should never focus on one poll or one pollster. Ultimately they are measures of opinion and guess what? Opinions change. The common mistake is to presume that just because says 40% support that its always going to be that way.  Think about the 2017 UK election, Labour were polling 24% when it was called. They ended up getting 40%. What happened was that Labour supporters who didn't like Corbyn were telling pollster they didn't know how they were going to vote, hence they weren't included. The election was called and they flocked back. This has led to Labour supporters thinking the same thing will happen again even though they're polling far behind the conservatives.

Polls get a bad rap because people don't understand the basics and don't understand what the polls tell them. Plenty of politicians don't understand them either.