I searched for the actual question text and found:
Q19a. The immigrants entering the country illegally today are poisoning the blood of our country.
The split was 14% completely agreed and 20% mostly agreed.
I’m not as surprised by the results as the headline would have suggested because of the use of the word illegally. It biases the question negatively.
The 20% who mostly agreed may have agreed with some negative connotation surrounding illegal immigration while ignoring the racism of “poisoning the blood.” In other words, if I put myself in the shoes of someone who feels strongly about securing the border, I could understand how those respondents would lean towards agree simply because of the use of the word “illegal.”
To further support this interpretation: In the same survey, more than 40% of respondents favor or strongly favor building a wall along the US-Mexico border.
Maybe I’m just optimistic that only around an eighth of the country is completely crazy and that is just a less clickbaity title.
I searched for the actual question text and found:
The split was 14% completely agreed and 20% mostly agreed.
I’m not as surprised by the results as the headline would have suggested because of the use of the word illegally. It biases the question negatively.
The 20% who mostly agreed may have agreed with some negative connotation surrounding illegal immigration while ignoring the racism of “poisoning the blood.” In other words, if I put myself in the shoes of someone who feels strongly about securing the border, I could understand how those respondents would lean towards agree simply because of the use of the word “illegal.”
To further support this interpretation: In the same survey, more than 40% of respondents favor or strongly favor building a wall along the US-Mexico border.
Maybe I’m just optimistic that only around an eighth of the country is completely crazy and that is just a less clickbaity title.