The problem lies fundamentally in heuristics. Specifically confirmation bias and social proof.

Polls used to be a way that decision makers could “read the room” or “understand the mood” and use those insights to gain insights and make decisions.

Today polls are however not that at all.

What they have become is a feedback loop that simply generates distorted noise. So people consume polls in a state of heightened anxiety: am I right or am I wrong. And adjust their thinking accordingly.

Certain pollsters know this. So their goal is not to measure nor to educate. Instead their purpose is to generate the “statistic” that will influence and create changed thinking.

They have therefore engaged in influence not measurement. And that is why they should be censured or judged.

And that is why they should also be ignored. Even when we “agree” with what the poll result shows.