What is the evidence that opinion surveys reflect what people actually do?

People are often asked what they'd do in a certain situation. For example, in the news there is the story about peoples' views regarding the effect of increased air travel tax. Some people say that it wouldn't change their behaviour or it may do etc. Decisions are often made on the back of opinion polls therefore. How do we know that opinions are the same as what people actually do? In other words, how reliable are these surveys? Is it enough to base potentially important decisions like governmental policy?

What is the evidence that opinion surveys reflect what people actually do?
Opinion Polls basically work on the survey team asking a varied selection of people and the most common answer given being representative of what the majority think(think, being the key word - not do). It gets part way there because of this but is not 100% as these are randomly selected people, it could be that the people asked are a minority that share the same opinion, therefore they are not representative and the process is flawed
Reply:How many people do they ask, isnt it usually 100. How does the views of 100 people reflect a what a country wants or what is rightly good for us.
Reply:Its expensive, annoying, totally untrue and usually ends up on tele adverts, or spam on our computors. Its a bit like the government really, all spam and no substance. Hope this answers your question.
Reply:that is true, mostly their openions differ from what they might actually do, but if that is to go with a political or governmental decision policy, then they have got no choice but to accept their people and go with the majority, wether they are true with their actions or not. If you see political words or policies are not often practical either, but civilians have no choice other than going with it.





However, psychology proves the majority give their openion based on their acts, when they are asked for their change of behaviour at certain situations.

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