The poll my buddy ran for his church showed a 12% attendance lie

My friend runs the youth group at his church in Dayton and last month he put together a simple Google poll to plan a summer trip. He told me 42% of parents said they'd send their kids, but only 6 kids actually signed up out of 30 families. We dug into it and found the parents were answering what sounded good, not what they'd really do, and his sample was only the most engaged 15 parents. That got me thinking about how every viral poll or survey we see online has the same gap between stated intent and real behavior. Has anyone else run a poll that looked solid but totally missed reality when it came time to act?

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jessica9211mo ago

My buddy ran a similar poll for our car club meet and we got 3x the responses but half the turnout, so we just started asking for a deposit up front.

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jenny_lane121mo ago

Oh man, this is such a classic trap! It's like how everyone says they'll come to your party but then half of them ghost you when the day arrives. I've noticed the same thing with online petitions or those "quick question" polls on social media, people click yes because it takes zero effort, but actual follow-through requires time and money and suddenly nobody's around. The deposit trick is the only thing that seems to separate real interest from polite nods, it's like a lie detector for intentions.

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