一项由皮尤研究中心委托盖洛普在以色列进行的关于社交媒体审查态度的调查显示，以色列人对禁止各种言论的支持率很高。然而，调查中关于表达对加沙平民的同情的问卷翻译可能存在偏差，导致调查结果可能不准确。

🤔 调查发现，以色列人对禁止各种言论的支持率很高，包括禁止在社交媒体上发布支持恐怖主义、仇恨言论以及对以色列士兵的暴力行为的帖子。

🤨 一项关于表达对加沙平民同情的问卷翻译可能存在偏差，因为希伯来语中的“同情”一词可能被误解为“支持”或“认同”。

🧐 如果调查中使用的翻译词语是“认同”，那么结果将更加令人担忧，因为这表明以色列人可能更倾向于禁止对加沙平民表达同情。

😔 调查结果表明，翻译在跨文化研究中至关重要，应尽可能公开透明，以确保调查结果的准确性。

🙏 研究者应在进行跨文化研究时，认真考虑语言的细微差别，并使用更中立的翻译词语，以避免误解和偏差。

Published on September 8, 2024 10:10 PM GMT

Pewrecently commissioned Gallup to run a poll in Israel on attitudesto social media censorship. They found high support for banningvarious kinds of speech:

The fourth question, especially, is disturbing: 59% want to banpublicly expressing sympathy for civilians in Gaza? Since thepolling was conducted in Hebrew and Arabic, however, this got me wonderingwhether translation might be contributing. I went to check, and Pewdid publishthe questions:

Q123c. Thinking about the war between Israel and Hamas, doyou think people should or should not be allowed to post each ofthe following on social media sites? c. Posts that expresssympathy for civilians in Gaza

A friend of a friend guessedthey might have used סימפטיה("simpatia"):

I don't know because they're not transparent, but Isuspect they used סימפטיהfor sympathy, which is a false friend, because—like in German—inHebrew it doesn't primarily mean a feeling of compassion orcommiseration, but a feeling of affection or support or approval

I don't speak Hebrew (or German) so I checked with Claude:

jefftk:What does סימפטיה mean?claude:סימפטיה (simpatia) is aHebrew word that means "sympathy" or "empathy" in English. It describes the ability to understand and sharethe feelings of another person, or to show compassion and concern forsomeone else's situation or emotions.jefftk:Would it be the right word to use when translating"Q123c. Thinking about the war between Israel and Hamas, do you thinkpeople should or should not be allowed to post each of the followingon social media sites? c. Posts that express sympathy for civilians inGaza"?claude:You're right to be thoughtful about the translation here, asnuance is important in survey questions. While סימפטיה (simpatia) canmean "sympathy," in this specific context, it might not be the mostprecise translation. Let me explain why and suggest an alternative:

Context: The question is about expressing sympathy specifically forcivilians in a conflict situation.Connotation: In Hebrew,סימפטיה often carries a slightly strongerconnotation than the English "sympathy" in this context. It might beinterpreted as more active support or alignment, which couldpotentially skew responses.Better alternative: A more neutral and accurate translation for thissurvey question might use the phraseהזדהות עם(hizdahut im), which means "identification with" or "empathy for."

While it's great that they do publish the original English, withoutalso publishing the actual questions they asked the results are muchless useful than they could be. If it turns out they usedהזדהות עם then I'mmuch more concerned than if they usedסימפטיה, though support forcensorship is worrying regardless.

So: if you're polling people in another language, please publish thetranslations you used!

Comment via: facebook, mastodon

Discuss