"Yoon Approval Rating at 40% Poll? Many May Have Hung Up the Phone..."

Critic Park Sung-min: "Question Bias Affects Responses"
"Cannot Say Approval Rating Increased from One Survey"

Controversy has arisen following a poll showing President Yoon Suk-yeol's approval rating at 40%, with Park Seong-min, head of Political Consulting Min, pointing out that "there is a possibility that mainly biased individuals participated in the (poll) responses."

On the 3rd, supporters of President Yoon Seok-yeol gathered on a road near the presidential residence in Hannam-dong to hold a rally opposing impeachment.

On the 6th, Park appeared on SBS Radio's 'Kim Tae-hyun's Political Show' and responded to the host's question, "How do you view the poll showing President Yoon's approval rating at 40%?" by saying, "I will not say whether this poll was done well or poorly. However, I don't think we can conclusively say that the approval rating rose just because of one factor."

Earlier, the Korea Public Opinion & Reputation Institute (KOPRA) conducted a nationwide survey of 1,000 men and women aged 18 and older on behalf of Asia Today from the 3rd to 4th. The poll showed President Yoon's approval rating at 40%. The percentage of respondents who answered that they "strongly support" the president was 31%, and those who said they "somewhat support" him accounted for 9%. On the other hand, 60% of respondents said they "do not support at all (56%)" or "somewhat do not support (4%)."

President Yoon Suk-yeol is delivering a live nationwide address at 10 a.m. on the 7th, ahead of the impeachment vote related to the declaration of martial law. (TV footage)

Regarding this, Park pointed out that the "order of the survey questions" could cause respondents to drop out and affect the results. He noted, "In this survey, question 1 asked about the president's approval rating, question 2 about party support, but questions 3, 4, and 5 consecutively asked politically charged questions."

Looking at the survey questionnaire, question 3 was, "What do you think about the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO) forcibly detaining the sitting president despite the controversy over the illegality of the arrest warrant for President Yoon Suk-yeol?" Park criticized the bias in the question, saying, "The question includes the phrase 'controversy over the illegality of the arrest warrant' followed by 'forcible detention of the sitting president.' This emphasizes those points."

Park also pointed out problems with question 4, "Do you think a public audit of the National Election Commission's election system is necessary to resolve suspicions regarding hacking and election fraud allegations mentioned by President Yoon as reasons for declaring martial law?" and question 5, "What do you think about proposing a bill to punish acts that raise suspicions of election fraud by the National Election Commission?"

Park explained, "Even if the president's approval rating was asked earlier, many people might have hung up the phone after these questions." He added, "In such cases, the statistics might be based only on responses from somewhat biased individuals. (Polls) calculate statistics only from those who completed the entire survey." He also said, "Asking long and complicated questions confuses respondents. That's why when I request surveys, I say 'make the questions very simple and straightforward, without any interference.'"

He further emphasized, "It is better to look at all the other surveys together, and since there can always be intervals of over-sampling or under-sampling, one must be cautious when interpreting survey results."