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20 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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What are the types of public opinion? |
* General orientation (whether or not someone is a republican or democrat) *Specific opinion on issues (American Cancer Association) |
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How is public opinion measured? |
It can be measured through surveys (on the phone, websites) or proxies (using election results) |
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What do we care about public opinion? |
Public opinion judges the legitimacy of our leaders, it also increases their accountability and judges representation of the constituency |
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What might a pessimist say about public opinion in regards to: AMERICAN PEOPLE |
*Many American people are ignorant of basic politics and there is low constraint between issue preferences (it doesn't change very often across time/issues) *Most people identify with a certain party because their family identifies with it *American don't understand what conservatives/liberals believe (or are supposed to) |
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What might an optimist say about public opinion? |
*There is a miracle of aggregation *Heuristics (the system isn't perfect but its good enough) *Measurement error can be used to explain discrepancies in results |
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Kaiser Family Foundation Health Tracking Poll |
*They have been running polls monthly for the last decade *The polls are very high quality and they use the best methods to make sure that the responses are good *The raw data from the polls is accessible online |
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How can you predict if someone will support or oppose an issue? |
You can often tell based on their party alignment, demographics, insurance status and health status. These factors can inform you about each other. (Lots of these things are correlated! It can be hard to tell which factor is influencing their decision) |
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How do elites cue public opinion? |
*Depending on the issue, the public will either look towards or away from the elite in order to make their decisions *Elites don't have to be politicians, they can also be non-party elites (churches, NRA, interest groups) |
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Significance of non-response in polls |
*A much higher percentage of poor people respond "I don't know" on polls (This can skew polls to favor the opinion of the wealthier) |
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What do people think of the ACA? |
*People are relatively uninformed *People that responded negatively did so because they thought it would cost them more *People that responded positively did so because they were in favor of expanding access to health care |
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What do people think of King v. Burwell? |
*Most people haven't heard much about it and those who have, have only heard a little bit about it |
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Where do the misperceptions about vaccines come from? |
*They are mostly unfounded *ONE article published in a British medical magazine presented evidence that vaccines MIGHT be correlated to autism |
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How can you combat misinformation in the public? |
*You can correct the misinformation! (Ex. the CDC has tried to present scientific evidence that show that vaccines do not lead to autism) *Give people the standard risk information (risks of vaccines are always provided by the CDC) *Show a disease narrative or disease image (scare people into vaccinating their kids by showing what will happen if they don't) |
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Do attempts to correct misinformation work? |
NOT USUALLY :( Sometimes they even make things worse. |
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Why doesn't trying to correct misinformation work? |
*People often have strong beliefs that will make them filter out other opinions *There could be a "backlash" effect: telling people they are wrong could make them stick to their guns even harder *Telling people they are stupid/not listening to facts doesn't work |
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How do nefarious explanations influence misinformation? |
*Politicians intentionally lie to people *They spread bad information (Fox news?) *People will follow along (sheeple) |
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How would a neutral explanation influence misinformation? |
*Lots of political information can be interpreted different ways by different people *Political influencers can put a "spin" on an issue depending on the way they want their audience to view that issue *Public could be answering a different question than they thought they were |
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How do people choose what they believe (how do they reason)? |
People's interpretation of facts is always closely related to what they believe ideologically (evidence of this is shown in what people believe about global warming, health care) |
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How do you measure state public opinion? |
*You can use demographics, state election results and pooling surveys (all of these come with their own problems) *You can use the modern method of MR. P (multiple regression with post-stratification) |
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What do Americans think about Obesity? |
*Democrats are more likely to support initiatives that address obesity (putting nutritional information on menus) than republicans are *Wealthier and more educated people are less likely to support these initiatives *Those who believe that the problem lies with lack of access to good food will be more likely to support democratic initiatives |
