Evaluating Public Opinion Data

• Elected officials use them to:

  • Determine what issues the public supports
  • Help evaluate support for their policies
  • Craft favorable language to frame certain policies to the public
• Influence Branches of Gov.

  • Legislators - are responsive to keep their constituents satisfied in hopes of getting relected
  • Pres. - can use bully pulpit to respond to public opnion
  • Courts - are the least influenced by public opnion
• Unreliability of the Data

  • Knowledge - the general public may not have enough political knowledge to accurately respond to policy questions
  • Question Wording - can be confusing and worded to generate a specific response
  • Social Desirability Bias - telling the pollsters what they think the pullsters want to hear rather than what they truly believe
  • Non-Response Bias - Tendency of individuals to refuse to participate in public opinion data gathering