Of course! There’s a whole science to how questions should be worded, based on what we know about how people receive information. But this is also a matter of common sense. It is important to look at the question being asked and, if possible, to check the questions asked beforehand.
The questions can contain concepts that lead the respondent in a certain direction, for example: “It seems that there are fewer and fewer police officers on the streets, and many people are worried about the increase in crime, do you think that the police in this area are overworked?” which clearly indicates the direction of the desired response. Or questions that require more than one possible answer, but only one is offered, e.g. “What do you think, to what extent does the local government solve the problem of traffic jams and the lack of public transport?”. Questions such as these will not provide clear or useful answers about, for example, what people really think about public transport.
The context in which the questions are asked can obviously have an effect on how people answer. If the question about worry about crime is asked after a series of questions about whether they have ever been nervous while driving in city traffic, or have a relative or friend who has been robbed, etc. people are more likely to say they are worried than if this question was asked before the other questions. When using responses to questions such as this, it is important to be aware that the questions were biased or ambiguous and therefore may not be an accurate indication of what the respondents actually thought.
Responsible journalists and commentators should not present the results of such a survey, or should draw attention to misleading issues when presenting the results of the survey.