In the context of the study, the problem is that the wrongness of certain answers in the survey is supposed to be attributable only to political bias. I am not a socialist but I think it’s fair to say that the socialist view of economics, as far as economic facts are concerned, is not merely a bias. It may be wrong, but it should be credited at least as a mistaken school of thought rather than having all of its conclusions attributed to “myside bias”.
Although as I pointed out there are other problems with the survey, in this case the investigators should have limited themselves to questions that after correction, practically any intelligent person would agree upon—i.e. as close as possible to tautology whilst retaining the possibility for political bias to affect the results.
I can’t think of a good way to reword that particular survey question, so I’d probably scrap it. On the other hand:
a dollar means more to a poor person than it does to a rich person (disagree)
Ceteris paribus an average poor person, in comparison to an average rich person, is likely to be more motivated to perform some task (of which he is presumed capable) by the promise of a given monetary reward.
drug prohibition fails to reduce people’s access to drugs
Drug prohibition doesn’t increase the difficulty or inconvenience experienced by an average individual in obtaining hard drugs whatsoever
Answer Agree/Disagree/Unsure
I would expect “myside bias” to be less evident if the survey questions were like this (i.e. not very open to interpretation).
Thanks for the elaboration, which I endorse.
In the context of the study, the problem is that the wrongness of certain answers in the survey is supposed to be attributable only to political bias. I am not a socialist but I think it’s fair to say that the socialist view of economics, as far as economic facts are concerned, is not merely a bias. It may be wrong, but it should be credited at least as a mistaken school of thought rather than having all of its conclusions attributed to “myside bias”.
Although as I pointed out there are other problems with the survey, in this case the investigators should have limited themselves to questions that after correction, practically any intelligent person would agree upon—i.e. as close as possible to tautology whilst retaining the possibility for political bias to affect the results.
I can’t think of a good way to reword that particular survey question, so I’d probably scrap it. On the other hand:
Ceteris paribus an average poor person, in comparison to an average rich person, is likely to be more motivated to perform some task (of which he is presumed capable) by the promise of a given monetary reward.
Drug prohibition doesn’t increase the difficulty or inconvenience experienced by an average individual in obtaining hard drugs whatsoever
Answer Agree/Disagree/Unsure
I would expect “myside bias” to be less evident if the survey questions were like this (i.e. not very open to interpretation).