Fake Polling Firm Duped Media in ‘Social Experiment’

Key Points:

• Wedgewood Polls admitted to fabricating survey results as part of a social experiment designed to expose vulnerabilities in the polling industry after being confronted with evidence by election analysis website FiftyPlusOne.
• The fake polls had been widely reproduced by major media outlets including Newsweek, The Hill, Breitbart, The Daily Beast, and the Washington Examiner, and were included in prominent polling databases before being removed.
• Wedgewood emerged in June 2026, quickly gaining recognition despite questionable credibility, with early surveys showing inaccurate results, such as misrepresenting the outcome of Louisiana’s Republican Senate primary.
• The exposure of Wedgewood’s deception has raised concerns about the lack of scrutiny by news organizations and polling aggregators, highlighting the potential impact of fabricated polls on political campaigns, as noted by Michigan state Senator Mallory McMorrow.
• The incident has intensified debate over polling reliability, with experts like Columbia University statistician Andrew Gelman praising the investigation and criticizing the media’s reliance on frequent election horse-race polling narratives.