Well, howdy there internet people, it's Bell again.

So today we're going to talk about polls and safety in numbers,

but not the way your mom used to talk about it.

We've been getting a lot of questions over the last few weeks

about why so many outlets seem focused on polls, why they put out so much content on them,

and why people are so interested in them even though polls aren't

predictive but rather a snapshot of a single point in time and that's in their

best case assuming they were done correctly.

The answer has less to do with politics and more to do with psychology.

Numbers give us an idea of what to expect.

And I'm not really talking about what to expect with the election.

I'm talking about the immediate here and now.

Humans are creatures whose brains crave certainty.

We find quantifiable things, known things, comforting.

Because of this little quirk of human nature,

news outlets use it to their advantage.

Let me give you four reasons why.

Did you see what I did there?

You're certainly familiar with that headline style.

Numbered lists let us know what to expect. They let us quantify the information

we're about to receive because it gives us certainty. There's a widespread

belief that we're more likely to click on a link with a number.

...