Half of Gen Z voters — and 1 in 4 U.S. voters overall — have lied to people close to them about who they’re voting for, according to the latest Axios Vibes survey by The Harris Poll.

The findings raise big questions about the limits and future of polling, which relies on voters giving responses reflecting their real-life political behavior.

  • @Tolookah@discuss.tchncs.de
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    1468 months ago

    Some likely don’t want retribution from their far right family members, others didn’t want to talk politics with Uncle Bob, who will talk and talk forever if you don’t agree with him, others want to mess with the polls.

    • @kryptonianCodeMonkey@lemmy.world
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      1168 months ago

      Dont be too confident in the secretly voting Dem demographic. Unfortunately, that pendulum swings both ways. It can just as easily be Trump supporters who don’t want to face social consequences for that choice as well.

      • Jo Miran
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        1018 months ago

        There are a lot of ignorant gen-z men with a victim complex and a TikTok account that are closet fascists and follow right wing propaganda targeted towards a younger audience. They might not want to admit that they are pathetic losers to their friends and family.

        • @prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          8 months ago

          Yeah, I’m prepared to be extremely disappointed by my fellow men (particularly young, white men), next week.

          Sad state of affairs.

          I hope that the women-folk can drag us into modernity, kicking and screaming.

          (Is it ok to say “women-folk”?)

      • @taiyang@lemmy.world
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        198 months ago

        Exactly, that’s how 2016 was. I suspect it’s the same this year, although given how dependent Gen Z is on parents financially, I’d still get the secret Harris supporters have better reason to withhold the truth this year. I can’t imagine a Harris supporter kicking out their Trump son (even if they’re definitely disappointed).

        I sure as hell wouldn’t wanna get kicked out over my vote. And really, that isn’t even a Gen Z thing honestly, my dad got kicked out at 15 for leftist views and that was the 70s.

        • @prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          28 months ago

          I have nothing to back this up besides anecdotal evidence, at best, but I suspect that the number of millennials who are willing to disown their children about anything, let alone politics, is lower than previous generations.

          At least I hope so.

          • @taiyang@lemmy.world
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            18 months ago

            Gosh I hope so. Actually data would back you up, I think, since millennials lean left and are more educated and less religious. All factors that help in that regard.

      • @Aolley@lemmy.world
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        168 months ago

        I can see that. If you’re a hateful or bigoted person and you tell people about that then they like you less usually, so by not telling people about your trump support you would lose less friends

      • @gAlienLifeform@lemmy.world
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        38 months ago

        Or maybe just people unwilling to support Harris because of her refusal to commit to stopping Palestinian genocide who are sick of hearing they’re Trump supporters

  • @Asafum@feddit.nl
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    618 months ago

    “Voters across the political spectrum said they’ve lied about their voting: 27% of Democrats acknowledged it, while 24% of Republicans and 20% of independents did so. The survey didn’t ask exactly how, why or to whom they’d lied.”

    Also…

    “40% of voters said they planned to wait until Election Day to vote, just in case something changes — with another 8% saying it will probably be a “gut decision” in the voting booth.”

  • @meyotch@slrpnk.net
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    438 months ago

    I take it as a major moral obligation to lie to pollsters. For similar reasons, when using a proprietary LLM, I make sure to inject completely random profanity in all my responses to poison their training data.

    ALL polls are push polls.

    • @BassTurd@lemmy.world
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      98 months ago

      I remember when I was in 7th or 8th grade, everyone had to take an anonymous mandatory survey. That day I was a chronic hard drug user. The amount of drugs I was allegedly taking would have bankrupt a millionaire. Absolutely a waste of everyone’s time and money.

  • @BassTurd@lemmy.world
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    288 months ago

    If a pollster somehow gets through to me, they are not get a reasonable or PC answer. I’m telling them all sorts of terrible things I think about their uninvited solicitation of me, and where they can shove. If I wasn’t a petulant child that responds to cunts that way, I still wouldn’t give them anything. I won’t put a sign outside my house, because Republicans are fucking crazy and self proclaimed “domestic terrorists”, and staying off any of their lists is certainly a forethought.

  • @nucleative@lemmy.world
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    188 months ago

    I really wonder how they get a representative sample these days. I haven’t answered my phone for years and I’m surely not the only one.

    Do they only call, or do they send DMs on TikTok or what?

    • @IphtashuFitz@lemmy.world
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      198 months ago

      I’ve also gotten SMS spam that looks like potential legitimate pollsters, but hell if I’ll click on them. Between all the obvious spam texts I’ve gotten over the years and the flood of political spam the past few months, I simply ignore and delete them all…

      • @stoned_ape@lemmy.world
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        108 months ago

        This is my current spam inbox on my texts messages. I engage sometimes a la the top text, but also my name isn’t Renay and I’ve had this phone number for many many years

        • @whoisearth@lemmy.ca
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          48 months ago

          These damn radical Democrats up to no good! I’m so glad I’m getting notified of their shenanigans! /S

    • themeatbridge
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      338 months ago

      When it’s impolite to discuss politics, the only people discussing politics will be assholes.

      • @nondescripthandle@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        8 months ago

        Compared to the enlightened discussions we have as things are? Social media made talking about politics more ubiquitous than ever and it only made things worse. Also this may surprise you but you can talk politics without disclosing who you vote for.

        • themeatbridge
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          8 months ago

          I’m saying this is how things are. It is currently unacceptable to discuss politics in public. It’s impolite to point out bigotry or fascism. It’s uncomfortable to ask someone if they are batshit insane. We should normalize normal again, and we can’t get there if social norms preclude discussing the malignant hate-based ideology that is prevalent right now.

          • @nondescripthandle@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            8 months ago

            And why is it necessary to disclose who you’re voting for to do any of that? In fact I’d argue not disclosing who you vote for makes these conversations easier because you cant just instantly jump onto us vs them mentality and tune someone out before listening.

            • themeatbridge
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              98 months ago

              Because if you’re not voting for Harris, you’re supporting a racist, rapist, fascist felon who wants to use the national guard to murder me and people I care about. Pardon me for being curious.

        • themeatbridge
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          88 months ago

          Agreed. We should fix that by making it socially acceptable to discuss politics. We start that by first stomping out all the Nazis.

  • @sorval_the_eeter@lemmy.world
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    158 months ago

    Disclosure is not owed to anyone on this issue. I think if you are asking the question, you should expect evasiveness up to the point of lying. Its a reflection of how bad things are in our government.

    • @lagomorphlecture@lemm.ee
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      88 months ago

      It can be physically and emotionally unsafe to disclose how you voted. Its gross for media to try to blame people for doing their part but doing it safely instead of blaming the terrorists who makes people afraid to tell the truth.

    • @PM_Your_Nudes_Please@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      Yup, if Trump wins and starts enacting fascist policies, I’ll 100% be defaulting to “oh who has time for politics” when anyone asks what my views are. Because I’ll have to assume that if someone is asking, it’s to report me if I’m too liberal. It’s always important to remember that the nazi camps didn’t start with Jews; It started with political prisoners and dissenters who spoke out against the government. Because when a fascist government is seizing control, the first thing they’ll do is try to silence the opposition.

    • @Maggoty@lemmy.world
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      68 months ago

      I agree. The real story here is half of Gen Z felt like they had to lie. When I was growing up it was perfectly acceptable, even to my parents, to say I don’t want to talk about it. It’s a secret ballot for a reason.

  • @mlg@lemmy.world
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    158 months ago

    I’m pretty sure the most accurate poll so far has been the nickelodeon kids poll because it’s technically a side channel info dump since kids would actually want to participate and they typically represent their parents’ views.

    It was 52-48 in Harris’s favor.

    The Kids Pick the President “Kids’ Vote” is an informal non-scientific poll, meant for entertainment purposes only.

    Either that or they fudged the results to keep parents happy lmao

    • @lagomorphlecture@lemm.ee
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      28 months ago

      Even that might be wrong because at least some of those mothers are afraid to voice their real views. So I agree with you but I still think it might be skewed too heavily in Trump’s favor.

  • @kitnaht@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    Welcome to … well, all of history? This isn’t news. There have been plenty of times and plenty of reasons throughout history where people have needed/wanted to lie about who they were voting for.

  • Media Bias Fact CheckerB
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    28 months ago
    Axios - News Source Context (Click to view Full Report)

    Information for Axios:

    Wiki: reliable - There is consensus that Axios is generally reliable. Some editors consider Axios to be a biased or opinionated source. Statements of opinion should be attributed and evaluated for due weight.


    MBFC: Left-Center - Credibility: High - Factual Reporting: High - United States of America


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