Marijuana poll raises questions about question wording
Support for marijuana legalization varies depending on how you phrase questions used to poll voters. Results in a recent survey show North Carolina's attitudes on the topic are more conservative than the national electorate.
Posted — UpdatedThis result raised several questions for me. One, is polling in North Carolina on this question consistent? Second, does question wording matter? Last, how does North Carolina compare with other states or nationally?
I found just two other polls conducted in North Carolina since 2013 that asked about marijuana. Their findings indicate both consistent support and the importance of question wording.
All three surveys suggest there is significant support for pot, right? Not so fast.
There are several policy options, ranging from legalizing marijuana for medicinal purposes to more broadly legalizing for personal recreational use. The same PPP poll found that just 42 percent support legalization of marijuana in general, absent a medical justification. I could not find another recent poll of North Carolina that asked residents about their views on the recreational use of marijuana.
All of these polls, however, mention a doctor prescribing marijuana, while in North Carolina, it was only the Elon poll that included this information in its question. Since the Elon poll finds higher levels of support, more similar to other states, referencing a doctor prescribing it is likely adding to the levels of support.
Nevertheless, compared to national views, North Carolina is definitely more conservative than trends found in national polls.
I have a couple of concluding observations based on some question wording experiments that my students and I undertook.
Future polls should investigate this possibility by allowing respondents to explicitly say they have no opinion. They should also measure the intensity of support/opposition, since outnumbered opponents could be more firm in their views.
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