Chapter 11: Public Opinion

Public opinion

the sum of individual attitudes about government, policies, and issues

• debated if public opinion exists because its impossible to summarize the opinion of such a large population

• involves an individual’s own beliefs and attitudes — aggregation of individual attitudes

Focus group

a small group of individuals assembled for a conversation, usually led by a moderator, about specific issues in order to understand what people think about a political topic

Scientific poll

a representative poll of randomly selected respondents of a statistically significant sample size, who are asked questions using neutral language

Sample

a group of individuals from a large population used to measure public opinion

Random selection

a method of choosing poll respondents in a way that does not over- or underrepresentany group of population

Representative sample

a sample that reflects the demographics of the population

Weighting

a procedure in which the survey is adjusted accordingly to the demographics of the larger population

Sampling error

the margin of error in a poll, which usually is calculated to plus or minus 3 percentage points

Mass survey

a survey designed to measure the opinions of the population, usually consisting of 1500 respondents

Entrance survey

a poll conducted of people as they come into an event

Exit poll

a survey conducted outside a polling place in which individuals are asked who or what they just voted for and why

Benchmark poll

a survey taken at the beginning of a political campaign in order to gauge support for a candidate and determine which issues are important to voters

Tracking polls

a survey determining the level of support for a candidate or an issue throughout a campaign

Question order

has potential to influence a poll’s results, especially on public opinion surveys

Question wording

has potential to skew/influence poll results.

E.g. only presenting agree/disagree with one statement instead of a choice between two statements. (or using very strong language)