A) Do you love polls, or b) are you weird?

You’ll never believe this: College students under the age of 21 who have fake IDs are more likely to drink alcohol than those who don’t. A University of Missouri-Columbia study, which surveyed more than 3,700 students, found that ownership of fake IDs increased by nearly 20% over the course of four semesters and led to increased alcohol consumption. What’s more (this will blow your mind), members of fraternities and sororities were more likely to have fake IDs than non-Greeks.

Who funds studies like this? The National Council on the Completely Obvious?

How about the Center for Recognizing the Sad Truth About What Gets People’s Attention? As anyone who’s watched a reality show, visited a website or even called the cable company lately knows (“You’ve been selected to participate in a quality-control survey!”), polls are hot. No longer limited to dry political inquiries in newspapers and marketing surveys about cleaning products, polls don’t just reflect public opinion, they reflect our fascination with the whole concept of public opinion -- mostly our own.

Whether we’re sounding off about healthcare reform, taking a Glamour magazine “Are you normal?” poll or posting a survey on our MySpace page about whether those pants go with that shirt, what often seems most compelling is not the subject at hand but the feeling of participating, the group thing, the vague stirrings of a democratic process. Never mind that the subject matter is often stupefyingly trivial and the results are about as scientific as interpretive dance. Take, for instance, the recently launched BuzzDash.com, which offers thousands of live, anonymous polls about a host of subjects. Questions range from “Should universal healthcare cover illegal immigrants?” to “Women: would you rather be with a man who is a) very hairy or b) overweight (at last check, hirsute gentlemen were leading by 22%).

BuzzDash founder David Gerken says he wants the site to be the go-to place for anyone who wants to “gauge the pulse of the nation.”

“We each only have our own perspective on things,” he said. “The Internet lends itself to getting perspectives from broad groups of people. You can get a mainstream poll from someplace like USA Today, but we deal not only with headline issues but human-interest and everyday types of issues. Like, for instance, ‘Do you think you’re weird?’ ”

As of a few days ago, 65% of the 742 people who had participated in BuzzDash’s “Do you think you’re weird?” poll had classified themselves as such. “I consider myself weirdly alluring,” went one comment (of course, just answering the question won’t do; there must be comments). “It would be weird not to think you’re weird,” said another.

No wonder the American public loves polls so much. They provide the invaluable service of reminding us we’re not alone in the world. Whether we’re tracking trends on Technorati.com or answering the question “Are farts funny?” (70% of respondents on a sports fan website say yes), polls let us see that, no matter what our opinions, there are always a few other folks sharing our tiny slice of the pie chart.

But as nice as it is to have company in the minority, everyone knows real gratification comes from being in the majority. And given the number of polls we could participate in daily, we have no dearth of opportunities to secure a place in the mainstream. Feeling freakish because you support Ron Paul or Mike Gravel for president? Don’t worry, BuzzDash’s “What would you prefer, losing a hand or an eye?” poll may well put you back inside the margins.

Ultimately, polls and surveys celebrate normalcy. And while their popularity has been enabled by the Internet, it’s worth remembering that our love of averages (and, by extension, our averageness) predates Google Trends. In his 1981 essay, “Within the Context of No Context,” the legendary media critic George W.S. Trow equated the downfall of society to a popular survey-based television game show. Pointing to “the moment in which Richard Dawson, the host of a terrible program called ‘Family Feud,’ asked someone what he thought the audience would say the average was,” Trow lamented that there was “no reality whatsoever. No fact anywhere in sight.”

The funny thing is, you don’t need a survey to figure that out. If you’re a researcher at the University of Missouri, it’s probably enough to ask a bartender.

mdaum@latimescolumnists.com