this post was submitted on 21 Dec 2023
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United States | News & Politics
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How can anything in this country have 24 percent of one side support and only end up at 54 percent of the total? Should be closer to 70 if that's true. I guess somehow miraculously we never get more than 55 percent support for anything, but this stat sounds as inaccurate as me making up: 51 percent of Americans are pro choice including 20 percent of Republicans
Assume there are 200 people in a room; half are Democrats and half are Republicans. Assume 24% of the Republicans approve of this result. Assume 85% of the Democrats approve of this result.
(85 + 24) / 200 people = ~54%
"24% of Republicans". Not "24% of the population". Republicans are a subset of the whole.
If the population were half Democrats and half Republicans that would be 24% of the half that is Republican.
There is a bit of a bias from the fact that there are more registered Democrats than Republicans (about 46% of population vs. 23% for Republicans), so given a random sampling of the population, the numbers work. I don't have the numbers, but I remember hearing that Democrats were also more likely to take part in these polls overall.
Something something literacy and critical thinking do wonders.