Why European Union is hard (part II)
One of the difficulties with surveys on sensitive questions is that people may respond just out of emotional affiliation or based on slogans, rather than actually reflecting carefully on their beliefs. That’s the positive interpretation of opinion poll results collected in February by a Greek public opinion firm, who appear to be respectable apart from their horrible taste in graphs (via, and)
Among the questions was a section where respondents were asked whether they Strongly Disagree, Disagree, Agree, or Strongly Agree with statements (presumably in Greek and translated in the report)
- Greece should claim by any means from Germany war reparations/indemnities
- Greece should claim by any means from Germany the payment of ‘war loans’ granted to the German Occupation Forces during the period 1941-1944
- Germany, with its current policy, attempts to dominate Europe through its financial power
- They have right all those who argue that Germany’s current policy aims at the establishment of a Fourth Reich.
It’s surprising that someone would ask these questions, but it’s even more surprising that the proportion agreeing was 91%, 87%, 81%, and 77% respectively, and mostly in the ‘Strongly Agree’ category.
Thomas Lumley (@tslumley) is Professor of Biostatistics at the University of Auckland. His research interests include semiparametric models, survey sampling, statistical computing, foundations of statistics, and whatever methodological problems his medical collaborators come up with. He also blogs at Biased and Inefficient See all posts by Thomas Lumley »