[Fellshard]

In a way. The thing to remember about polls is that they tell you about publicly expressed opinion - in a freer nation, this can be a good gauge. When your very well-being relies on you responding in 'the right ways' to public inquiry, however...

[hntrader]

Preference falsification, self-selection bias and sampling bias.

Three sources of bias in polling.

No problem in politically uncontroversial polls, but cryptonite otherwise.