800 Poll

An 800 poll is a one-question unscientific “survey” that is taken by having daily newspaper readers, television viewers, and/or radio listeners call into a toll-free 1-800-number that involves no cost to the caller. A different 800-number is given for each “response” that the poll allows the self-selected respondents to choose as their answer to whatever the survey question is. These polls are typically sponsored over a one-day period (or part of a day) by media organizations that produce news. For example, callers who “agree” and those who “disagree” with whichever issue position is being surveyed use separate 800-numbers. It is possible to offer callers more than two answer choices, and thus more than two 800-numbers, but typically the polls utilize only two choices.

Such polls have no scientific standing because there is no way to know what target population is represented by those who choose to dial in. Since this is a nonprobability sample, there is no valid way to calculate the size of the sampling error. Additional threats to their validity include the possibility that the same person will call in more than once. Also, because the response choices normally are limited to two, the question wording and the response choices often are not well crafted.

Nonetheless, they offer a vehicle through which media organizations can provide their audience with a feeling of involvement in the news, since the poll results are typically reported by the news organization within the next day of the poll being conducted. In some cases, the news organizations acknowledge that the poll results they are reporting are unscientific, and in other cases they do not.

With the widespread use of the Internet by the general public, 800 polls have been mostly replaced by similar one-question unscientific surveys on the homepages of news media organizations' Web sites.

It is important to understand that these unscientific 800 polls are entirely unrelated to the scientific use of 800-numbers by some survey organization as a mode of allowing scientifically sampled respondents to “opt into” a mail survey rather than completing a questionnaire and mailing it back. That is, some survey organizations that conduct mail surveys provide their respondents with a toll-free 800-number to call in to complete the questionnaire with a telephone interviewer.