A poll conducted by the New Newmanton Civic Research Consortium and released Wednesday found that 70% of island residents reported negative feelings — categorized as 'dislike,' 'strongly dislike,' or 'hate' — toward a minority group whose identity was not revealed to participants at any point during the survey, including after it concluded. The remaining 30% selected 'no opinion,' 'neutral,' or 'prefer not to say,' with the exception of 11 respondents who attempted to name the group themselves. Their answers varied.

The poll, conducted over three weeks via telephone and door-to-door canvassing across all six of Gnu's residential districts, did not provide clarifying information before, during, or after the question was posed. Participants were asked to rate their feelings toward 'a minority group' on a five-point scale ranging from 'strongly like' to 'hate.' A methodological note in the appendix explains that the consortium 'deliberately withheld identifying information to isolate the emotional response from its object,' a decision described elsewhere in the appendix as 'within accepted parameters.'

Council President Diana Okafor-Mills released a statement expressing 'genuine concern about the culture these numbers reflect' and calling for 'a community conversation that brings all voices to the table, in a format that is constructive and does not inflame an already difficult situation' — language nearly identical, as The New Newmanton News has previously noted, to her statement on the NNNN acquisition. Her office confirmed the statement applied to all minority groups, named and unnamed. A follow-up poll identifying the group is planned for the third quarter, pending funding. Respondents will be notified of the group's identity upon completion of the second survey, at which point they will be asked whether their answer would have been different.