Public opinion quiz

Benchmark polls

Benchmark polls

done by a campaign before someone decides to run to see what the public think of the is candiate running

Demographics

• somenes’s race, gender, class, religon etc we can look at avg. to figure out how a praticular group tends to lean

Exit polls

-as ppl exit from polls they are polled to help predict results. Provide info for way voters voted how they did.

Focus group

small demographics , diverse group of people that are gathered together for a intance discussion

• used to judge how the public may react to somthing

Framing (polling)

• how a pollster asks a question can effect peoples responces to the question

Gallup poll

• a sampling of public opinion on a particular issue or the degree of info among the public on a particular thing

Gender Gap

• the gap b/w how people of different genders see the issues

• women tend to want the govt to play a more active role then men

• tend to prefer demolomacy while men prefer millitary action

• women tend to lean more dem while men more repub

Generational effect

• ppl used to think that as you got older you got more repub however recently it’s been found that ppls poltical opions don’t really change over time what does chage however is what things you pay more attention to

Heuristics

info shortcuts used by voters to make destions

• these voters tend to reach the same decision they would have made anyway

• limits to this and it can lead voters astray

Impressionable years hypothesis

• late teens and early 20’s is when teens really start paying attention to policies and what is going on politically at that time can effect rather they lean dem or repub

Liberal, Moderate, Conservative

• ones political ideology

• Liberalism is the predominant left-leaning ideology and conservatism is the predominant right-leaning ideology. Those who hold beliefs between liberalism and conservatism or a mix of beliefs on this scale are called moderates.

Margin of error (polling)

• expresses the amount of error the poll might have

• the larger the margin of error the less confidence one should have on how accurate the poll is

Non-Response Bias

• when thoses who are willing to ansewr a poll differ from those who do

• this leads to the sample no longer being representative of the population as a whole

• comment source of error in polls

Opinion Saliency

when some people care more about certain issues then others

Partisanship

A alliance toward a polotical party

Party sorting

voters sort themselves in partys that match their beliefs still have some centrist ideas the more involved in polotics you become the more hardened your beliefs become.

Perception Gap

americans tend to have a distorted understanding of the beliefs people on the other side have

• Dems and repubs imagine almost twice as many of their political opponents hold views they consider extreme

Political Efficacy

is the feeling that ones political input has an impact on the political process

political elites

• ppl with a disproportionate share of poltical power

• elected officilas, lobbysts, activists

Political ideology

consistent set of beilfs on the kind of polices govt should persue

Political legitimacy

the acceptance and recognition of a government's authority by its citizens or other political actors

Political socialization

• the process by which people get their political beliefs

Public Opinion

how citizens feel about their leaders, candidates for office, issues and institutions etc

Public Opinion Poll

interviews or surveys with samples of citizens that are used to estimate the feelings and beliefs of the entire population on an issue

Push poll

polls that skew people on an candiate by providing info about the candiate

• help induce projects for a campiagn

• some candidates make up lies about their opptent

Tracking Poll

tracking the changes in public opinion over time

• asks respondiate same questions and looks for changes in their responses

Symbolic Ideology

It looks at how often ppl use terms like liberal and conservtive + accurcy of prediaction

• if you know their belifs one one topic can you guess there beifes on another topic

Question wording (polls)

the way questions are worded can alter responses

-for example the use of loded language

Random Sampling

• in order for a poll to reflect how people think they have to use random sampling

• the prosses in which any adult has an equal chance of being polled

Sampling error

• if you take 2 polls using random sampling you will get slightly diffrent results. the diffrence in the results is called sampling error

Social Desirability Bias (polling)

the tendency for people to answer pulling questions in a way that will be viewed favorably by others

socioeconomic status

• top 1% (very wealthy) tend to vote against govt regulations of business and social programs

Stratified sampling

a method of sampling that involves the division of a population into smaller subgroups

How do policy makers and intrest groups use public opinion ?

• Policymakers and interest groups leverage public opinion to shape, promote, and justify their agendas. Public opinion serves as a critical tool for both influencing policy decisions and rallying support for specific causes or legislation.

How do people acquire the political beifs they have ?

• the single biggest factor is family: most people have the same beliefs as their parents.

  • the more politically active your family is the more likely you are to have the same beifs as them and also be politically active

• certain felids of study leans toward on party

• people who have gone to graduate school tend to lead democrat

• peers

• media: echo chambers, where you get your news

• religious + civic institutions

• geography

• impressionable years hypothesis

how race and ethnicity impact public opion

• AA tend to support affermitive action, oppose millatry force etc lean dem

• Latinos vary on where they are from

  • Cuban americans lean repub

  • putericans, elsevodrans lean dem

  • relligon trumps thier county of orgin

• Asian americans for the longest time lean reoub because they support decressed bussnus regulation

  • post 2000s lean toward dems

• 1 gen immmgrants tend to be more conservative then future gens

Religon

• evegelcals lean conservative

• non evegelcal protests dem

• chatlocs and jews are more cutdown the middle

• people who are more religous tend to be more repub

How do political partisanship and ideology shape what people want from government? What are the key ideas of liberals versus conservatives?

peoples political ideologies influence the role they belife govt should have on diiff issues

• librals support more govt regulation, social welfare programs

• repubs want less govt regulation

• How informed are Americans regarding politics? What are the arguments as to whether the amount of knowledge is problematic or not?

• americas are not very informed about polotics. However they tend to be able to use the info they do have to make informed destions but their is a limit to this and people can be dupped.

What is the relationship between public opinion and public policy?

• public opion can somewhat same policy. However a well funded loud minority can have more influence then a silent majority

Modorn pollster mian ideas

• wedege blw phone munbers and place of residance

• more ppl are mot ans polls

• reserch ferms are finding large groups of ppl whose info was put tog the right way provides reflectons of gen public

• invite ppl who have done one survy to do another

• on online polls you can test advertisements

Identiy pollotics mian idea

• chatoloc dem colotion fallen apart

  • b/c of postion on abortion

  • dems become uncofterble w/ religion