unit 4 polling and ideology

tracking poll

ask the same or similar questions over time to track public opinion

benchmark poll

often used before a candidate has declared their intentions to gather general information about people’s views and concerns

focus groups

10 to 40 people gathered to hold conversations about candidates and issues

approval rating

a percentage rating of how satisfied people are with a president’s performance. usually gagued by asking yes or no questions

framing

posing a question in a certain way to emphasize a certain perspectice

accurate poll qualities

• objective, not emotionally charged questions

• good question order

inaccurate poll qualities

• strong language to sway opinions (framing)

• bad question order

random sample

every single member of the universe must have an equal chance of being selected

universe

the entire population being studied or surveyed

representative sample

a group of people meant to represent the universe

stratification

weighing of data to make a certain demographic better represented (i.e inflating data from one demographic that was under represented in the poll)

as sampling size gets larger…

…margin of error gets smaller

the simplest yet most perplexing problems pollsters face when conversing with a respondent

those who don’t know about political topics and/or dont care

push poll

a poll (often telephone poll) used by campaigns to influence the reciver by offering positive points on the candidate and/or negative points on the opponent

political ideology

one’s political beliefs

political spectrum

spectrum of ideologies going from left (liberal, Democrat) to right (conservative, Republican)

saliency

how important a topic is to the general public

valence issue

issues that people mostly agree on

wedge issue

issues that people mostly disagree on