Survey: Not many EnZedders care about rugby.

Frame from survey by Uni of Auckland Stupidity Department

Today’s story about rugby is that not many EnZedders care about rugby. Turns out that at least one sociologist cares little for accuracy.

Associate Professor Toni Bruce, from the Faculty of Education and Social Work, is conducting a survey on people’s experiences of and attitudes towards the Rugby World Cup, based on similar surveys in 2007 and 2011.
     The sport sociologist, who is a rugby fan, says the results so far in 2015 reveal a group of New Zealanders, which she calls “the silent majority”, who are not enamoured of the Rugby World Cup.
    “These are people who are uninterested in rugby or the Rugby World Cup, including some who are actively resistant to what they see as rugby’s dominance of New Zealand’s cultural life,” she says…
    Dr Bruce said 37 per cent of the survey respondents reported that winning the Rugby World Cup was personally important to them, whereas the vast majority said it was not.

The sport sociologist says a lot more besides: about violence, about increasing commercialisation of the All Blacks, and about the way New Zealanders “invest so much of their identity into sport”—all things you have to say to get tenure in a modern university sociology department whether you believe them or not.

All of it was faithfully reported in the Herald, the Press, at Stuff—and then just as faithfully reported around the world—complete with headlines like Silent majority turned off by All Blacks and rugby, survey claims, and 'Silent majority' of Kiwis are not into rugby.

Yet you have to read to the end the Herald story to discover that the sport sociologist’s survey “is self-selecting”—much like on of those Paul Henry or John Campbell questions where they ask —and, even worse, that the basis for the sweeping “silent majority” claim is a sample size of just 197.

So far 197 people have completed the 2015 survey. In 2007 there were 131 survey participants and in 2011 there were 267.

So just under 200 people have completed her stupid survey. Fewer people who have commented on her story since it’s been publicised.

Talk about making far too much soup on from one onion. Just 197 people in a self-selected survey, and this silly bitch’s “result” is getting all this coverage. 197 people, of which 126 said something she interprets as saying winning the Rugby World Cup was not personally important to them.

Why not head over here now to take her survey, and start to skew her stupid story.

UPDATE:  Farrar:

Sounds like it was a self-selecting survey, which is basically worthless.  [This means any quantitative data (ie more people are turned off rugby) is pretty useless, even though there can be useful qualitative data (why some people are turned off)]
    UMR did a scientific poll in 2011 about what news stories people followed. 83% of NZers said they closely followed the story of the All Blacks winning the Rugby World Cup…