herding

Noun

herding (plural herdings)

1. An act by which individuals are herded.
   • These herdings and stabbings and stranglings occurred five hundred years ago, before America felt the withering touch of Europe. Does that exclude them from our concern?2010, Inga Clendinnen, Reading the Holocaust
2. A hirsel.
   • The whole flock is divided up into seven herdings (the equivalent of the Scottish "hirsels"), and it is through the head shepherd's herding that the only new blood is introduced. Every two or three years some rams are bought at Hawick […]1930, Scottish Agriculture
3. Manipulation of poll results by a polling organization so that they match those produced from other organizations.
   • It’s what known in the polling industry as “herding”. And herding, not to put too fine a point on it, is when pollsters cheat. Each polling company knows that however accurate their results are, they will ultimately only be judged on one poll. The final poll before the election.2015 June 24, Dan Hodges, “Why did the polls get it wrong at the general election? Because they lied”, in The Telegraph
   • Some observers are concerned also that polling firms “play it safe” by trying to ensure that their own results don't differ too much from the findings of other firms. This practice has been called “herding.”2016, Russell K. Schutt, Understanding the Social World: Research Methods for the 21st Century