Since the _____, governmental decision makers have relied heavily on public opinion polls.
1930s
Who is considered the founder of modern-day polling?
George Gallup
Unscientific surveys used to gauge public opinion on a variety of issues are known as what?
straw polls
Since 1952, researchers at the University of Michigan have conducted surveys to assess the political attitudes and behavior of the American electorate. By what name is this research known?
National Election Studies
Although campaign organizations generally deny conduction push polls, research indicates that push polls have indeed targeted political candidates. How many candidates have been targeted by this type of polling?
more than three-quarters
When were tracking polls introduced?
1992
Researchers refer to the unintended influence of the questioner on respondents during in-person interviews as what?
interviewee bias
Polls may be inaccurate for a number of reasons. Which of the following is one of these reasons?
Polls are unable to measure the intensity of feelings about issues
The _____ is a measure of accuracy of a public opinion poll
margin of error
What are "feeling thermometer" questions?
questions that ask respondents how they feel about a particular issue by using a 0-100 scale
What do Americans often have difficulty forming opinions about?
policies that do not affect them personally
Of the following, which is considered a demographic characteristic?
gender
In what are many American ideals, including hard work and personal responsibility, rooted?
our nation's Protestant heritage
When is a child's peer group most politically influential?
when the child enters middle school or high school
Which amendment removed the election of US senators from the hands of state legislators and placed it in the hands of citizens?
the 17th Amendment
All government rests on public opinion." Where is this sentiment expressed?
in The Federalist Papers
What reason does Andrew Kohut, president of the Pew Research Center, give to explain why public opinion polls have become critical players in national and international politics over the last three decades?
the rise in the number of public opinion polls
Why is Walter Lippmann credited with spurring the growth of public opinion polling?
Lippmann wrote a book in which he observed that research on public opinion was far too limited, especially in light of it importance
George Gallup undoubtedly had a vested interest in fostering reliance on public opinion polls. Why?
he was a pollster
Of the following statements about the 1936 Literary Digest poll, which predicted Roosevelt's defeat for reelection, which is true?
the poll oversampled the upper middle class and the wealthy
In the context of public opinion polls, what is self-selection?
a reference to the highly motivated respondents who decide for themselves whether or not to participate in surveys
What is the purpose of a "name recognition survey"?
to discover how many people have heard of a potential candidate for office
What does the Pew Global Attitudes Survey assess?
the attitudes toward global powers held by citizens in a sample of countries
Why do reputable polling firms eschew push poll tactics?
the intent of a push poll is to give respondents some negative or even untruthful information about a candidate's opponent
How does the textbook answer this question: why are traditional telephone polls becoming increasingly difficult to conduct?
many people do not have landlines
How are exit polls conducted?
in person
Which of the following statements about the shortcomings of polling is true?
polls sometimes fail to measure intensity of feeling
Two types of errors are common to polls. What are they?
margin of error and sampling error
Of the following public opinion poll topics, which is more likely than the others to be subject to a screening procedure?
the federal budget
How do political scientists define political socialization?
as the process through which individuals acquire their political beliefs and values
Refer to "How Do Demographic Characteristics Affect Public Opinion?" and indicate which is true about how age impacts views on whether or not the government should guarantee every citizen enough to eat and a place to sleep.
Citizens between thirty and forty-nine years old fell the most strongly that every citizen has enough to eat and a place to sleep when compared to other age groups
At what age do parents exercise the greatest influence on the political socialization of their children?
from birth to age 5
Gaps in the way that citizens view government, political leaders, and public policies may be the result of gender, race, age, party, and religion, which are collectively known as what?
demographic characteristics
Researchers have found that women are _____ similarly qualified men to think about running for office
more reluctant than
Why has the public become more of a critical player in national and international politics in the past three decades?
because the number of polls regularly conducted and reported on is rising
Which of the following statements best describes the interaction between public opinion and public policy in the US?
the public's views, registered through public opinion polls, can affect policy
In 1787, John Jay wrote glowingly of the sameness of the American people. In Federalist No. 2, he wrote that we are "one united people-- a people descended from the same ancestors, speaking the same language, professing the same religion, attached to the
He would likely agree that reliance on public opinion polls is unnecessary for good governance
In 1948, the Chicago Tribune wrongly predicted that R Thomas E. Dewey would beat incumbent President Harry S. Truman. Knowing what you know about the accuracy of various polls, what kind of poll would most likely have led the Chicago Tribune to make this
a straw poll
The Gallup organization predicts that Andrew Cuomo, the governor of New York, wins the 2016 presidential election with 61 percent of the popular vote. If Cuomo actually wins by capturing 49 percent of the popular vote, to which factor, more that the other
the presence of a prominent third-party candidate
A polling firm has been commissioned by the New York Times to assess public opinion about the performance of FEMA during the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. What should the firm do first?
determine the content and phrasing of the questions they want answered
Which of the following is the clearest example of a push poll question?
Would you approve of the candidate's vote for the antipoverty bill if you knew that the candidate never read the legislation?
You are in a political science class. There is an argument about how to define the target population for a survey to determine if families with children would use school vouchers to send their children to charter schools. From which of the following popul
parents of children under 18
You are a pollster about to analyze polling data in order to reveal the data's implications for public policy. Which of the following subgroups within the data would you, as a representative of a reputable polling organization, pay least attention to?
stockholders versus shareholders
In a random sample of 1,000 high school students, 29 percent indicated that they had read the Declaration of Independence at least once. If the margin of error is calculated to be 4 percent, which of the following statements is more likely than the others
If the poll were conducted again, the percentage of those questioned who have read the Declaration of Independence would likely be between 25 and 33 percent
As a pollster for Smart Polling, you are concerned about gauging the public's attitudes about arms-control policy, because you believe that the public not only has little information on this complex topic but also has thought little about it. What procedu
a screening procedure
Leslie is a white, middle class mother of two, who works as a librarian in the public library system of a large city in the American West. She is 57 years old. Given her demographic profile and the information provided presented in Table 10.1 on differenc
Leslie believes that American military interventions are usually a bad idea
In your American government class, you learn that most Americans' level of knowledge about history and politics is quite low and is declining every year. You also learn that political knowledge and political participation have a reciprocal effect on one a
in the future, the degree of political participation in America is likely to go down
During his campaign for reelection in 2012, Barack Obama deemphasized his work on health care reform. Which of the following reasons is the most plausible explanation for this decision, given what you know about the interaction between public opinion and
deep divisions in public opinion on the issue were apparent
In what way are George Gallup's sentiments about the role of public opinion in governance similar to those of many of today's political thinkers?
they are similar in believing that leaders should have an appraisal of public opinion and consider it in reaching their decisions
What did George Gallup mean when he said that public opinion polls "speed up the process of democracy"?
that polls define issues of concern to the public
Which of the following surveys is more likely than the others to generate self-selection error?
a mail-in survey of retirement community members about the privatization of Medicare
Why have the National Election Studies researchers conducted surveys before and after every mid-term and presidential election since 1952?
to compile long-term studies of the electorate
When conducting surveys, why is the wording of questions a central concern?
how a question is worded can unintentionally skew results
What is the difference between simple random sampling and stratified sampling?
Stratified sampling combines random selection with predetermined weighting of a population's demographic characteristics, whereas random sampling does not
Web polls that allow anyone to weigh in on a topic are similar to which of the following?
straw polls
Which type of survey question is best suited to addressing concerns about errors in public opinion polling resulting from difficulty in measuring intensity?
feeling thermometer" questions
Americans are likely to have the most difficulty forming opinions on which of the following topics?
topics involving the European Central Bank and creditor nations
When they become ten or eleven, what political opinion of Democratic presidents would you expect of the children raised in politically active Republican households?
that they would be more skeptical of Democratic presidents than Republican ones
Which of the following statements about the relationship between political knowledge and political participation is true?
increases in political knowledge lead to increases in political participation
Which of the following statements best reflects the Framers' attitudes about public opinion?
Public opinion is the best measure of the soundness of government policy