You have to ANALYZE the results yourself, and draw the logical connection.

A: There are questions on such polls along the lines of "How do you think things are going for Americans in this area?" The area might be mortgages, education, jobs, health care, you name it.

Often, the polls show that a majority of respondents believe that things are going badly for Americans.

B: Then a poll--often the same one--will have questions along the lines of "How are things going for you in these areas?"

Often, the polls show a large majority of the respondents quite pleased with their own situation.

See the disconnect?

When individually questioned, most of a group says their favorite color is blue, but believe most people's favorite color is red. Where are they getting this idea? Who's telling them "red?"

I linked to polls on health insurance with questions like this, and the pattern holds up.