Polls tend to reflect the views of those who pay for them, usually the ones with the most to gain by the poll. They can also reflect the political views of the owner of the polling corporation. Results can be entirely fictional. I tend to treat all poll results with a grain of salt. We're seeing a lot of questionable polls in Canada right now.

The problem is that the results can be self-fulfilling and persuasive to people who like to identifiy with winners and to feel they must agree with the purported majority. Everybody supports the seal hunt, so I must agree too, that kind of logic.

For more information on how a US polling company tried to influence politics see

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2006/09/07/pollster-pleads-guilty-to_n_28910.html

How come that none of my acquaintances consider the seal hunt to be anything other than barbaric slaughter? I am sceptical about this poll.