Opinion polling remains a challenging form of research - questions about reliability, validity, and authenticity – and yet, on review, many of these criticisms can be attributed to the interpretation of the poll findings, rather than the methodology itself.
This statement was true in 2017 for the previous iteration of this report. Today, in a world where the line between fact and opinion are blurred and where social media tends to polarize individuals, it is even more important to be able to rely on sound research and poll findings.
Despite the informational value polls bring, restricting the publication of opinion polls - particularly in the run-up to major political elections – is a popular tactic in many jurisdictions. ESOMAR and WAPOR have cooperated since 1984 in documenting those restrictions. This report marks the seventh in the Freedom to Conduct and Publish Election Polls series. Restricting the publication of election polls runs counter not only to the right to conduct and publish polls freely as upheld by Article 10 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, bu t also to the proven finding that election polls are a relatively neutral inte rpretative aid.
ESOMAR continues to promote a unique reference database, launched in 2017. The database – compiled by Kantar Lightspeed and made available through ESOMAR – collated more than 35,000 published polls, and polls conducted closest to Election
Day are closest to election results.