Public Opinion

Public opinion

Public opinion

-Opinions/attitudes that have to do with politics and are held by ppl about political issues, events, and personalities.

Individual opinions

-correspond to political phenomenon -don't become public until the individual tells/disclose their opinions

How are opinions formed?

-interactions with the outside political world -feelings, experiences, biases and principles that informs and helps us interact -comes from environment -taught by parents, family, society, education

Political Socialization

-the process through which we learn our feelings, bias, morals, beliefs, and principles to frame opinions -role is to inform political opinions and attitudes

Agents of Socialization (AOS)

-Intermediaries that help us get to political opinions

Agents

-the institutions that mediate the process/help pick up and learn (societal beliefs and values)

Primary Agents

-Encounter at early stage of life and enjoy some level of intimacy -Ex: family, schools, relatives, religious institutions

Secondary Agents:

-Encounter later on with our lives -Ex: peers/friends, coworkers, classmates, the media - Agenda setting, political leaders and events

major diff between primary and secondary is the level of closeness and intimacy

Agenda setting

the final say of what to cover and what not to cover

Frames of reference

-acquired through political socialization -reference points/angles/prisms through which we evaluate the political world around us -"shortcuts" or "heuristics" we employ to make sense/organize the political world around us

Types of frames of reference

-Party ID -Ideologies -Group Orientation

Party ID/label

-refers to strong emotional attachment to political party - "fans" -part of person's identity, their passion -a fluid phenomenon (ppl can switch betw. Rep and Demo) -leads to selective perception

Selective perception

-refers to those who have strong attachment to a party and perceive the world around them selectively, willing to interact with info that confirms their pre-existing beliefs → becomes a screen

Ideologies

-refers to the set of beliefs and principles about the role and purpose of the gov't -Liberals and Conservatives

Economic Liberals

-want big gov't in economy -gov't regulates

Economic Conservatives

-want small role of gov't in economy -gov't stay away from regulating (free market)

Social Liberals

-want gov't to play small role in social life

Social Conservatives

-want gov't to play major role in social life

Populist

-a person who believes gov't should play a major role in economic and social life

Libertarian

-a person who believes gov't should play a small role in economic and social life

Group Orientation

evaluating through groups: -race and ethnicity -gender/sexuality -age -religion -economic class

How do u measure public opinion

polls

Random/probability sampling

-method by which each element of the sample has a known probability of being picked

Samples must...

-be randomly picked -put into categories from population (ex: party ID, age, gender) -reflect characteristics of population

Margin of error

-tells/indicates how much the results deviate from results of the whole population -most important info on polls -if >3%, results are shaky

Confidence Interval (CI)

-If repeated 100 different times, its going to be at least 95% (95/100)

Fixable Problems of Polling

-Incomplete/not representative -ex: telephone polling -Arrangement is too abstract -wording of question -solution: running question through focus groups

Unfixable problems with polling

-Sensitive issues: people will assume, and as not to get judged, they'll say something "politically acceptable/correct" -Unfamiliar issues: if ppl don't know, they have no opinions → expands margin of error