Deck 7: Public Opinion

Question 1

Which perspective on public opinion's influence could be related to the framers' goal of avoiding the dangers of mob rule?

A) Ignorant masses
B) Self-governing people
C) Rational public
D) None of the above

Answer 1

A

Question 2

Public Opinion, an influential book, was written by

A) Ronald Reagan.
B) Walter Lippmann.
C) John F. Kennedy.
D) Karl Marx.

Answer 2

B

Question 3

Lippmann saw the typical American as distracted by which of the following?

A) Minor scandals
B) Voting records
C) Party politics
D) None of the above

Answer 3

A

Question 4

_______ said that the "science of public opinion" was undeserving of the name.

A) Mills
B) Lippmann
C) Goodnow
D) Lawrence

Question 5

Lippmann saw the typical American as distracted by

A) Celebrity shenanigans
B) Voting records
C) Party politics
D) None of the above

Question 6

Lippmann felt that the typical American

A) was interested in politics.
B) voted in every election.
C) rarely understood policy details.
D) was highly motivated.

Question 7

With what university were the authors of The American Voter affiliated?

A) University of Michigan
B) University of California
C) Arizona State University
D) Harvard University

Question 8

The publication of what text showed that those surveyed for the book's research knew little about the positions either political party stood for or about the main policy issues at the time?

A) Voting in the States after Landslides
B) The Constant Majority
C) The American Voter
D) None of the above

Question 9

In The American Voter, the authors argued that citizens knew _______ about the positions either political party stood for or about the main policy issues at the time.

A) little
B) a moderate amount
C) a great deal
D) None of the above

Question 10

The American Voter presented the foundation for what concept concerning the lack of a stable perspective in opinion surveys?

A) Nonattitudes
B) Response bias
C) Margin of error
D) Scientific inquiry

Question 11

What can be seen as suggesting that people often change their responses or opinions randomly, not necessarily because of new information?

A) Nonattitudes
B) Response bias
C) Margin of error
D) Shifting alignments

Question 12

Which publication says that the public is wise and reasonable in its opinions?

A) The American Voter
B) The Informed Public
C) The Rational Public
D) None of the above

Question 13

_______ opinion is the key to assessing popular preferences, according to The Rational Public.

A) Minority
B) Majority
C) Collective
D) Cascading

Question 14

Which of the following is not one of the three basic propositions in The Rational Public?

A) Collective opinion is key to assessing popular preferences.
B) Majority opinion is key to assessing popular preferences.
C) Individuals may be vague on policy specifics and even government basics.
D) Collective opinion is useful only when public officials are attentive to it.

Question 15

To which of the three propositions in The Rational Public does the idea of information shortcuts relate?

A) Collective opinion is key to assessing popular preferences.
B) Majority opinion is key to assessing popular preferences.
C) Individuals may be vague on policy specifics and even government basics.
D) Collective opinion is useful only when public officials are attentive to it.

Question 16

_______ shortcuts are cues about candidates and policies drawn from everyday life.

A) Preference
B) Information
C) Access
D) Temporary restraint

Question 17

A homeowner grasping the importance of interest-rate changes demonstrates what type of shortcut relating to The Rational Public?

A) Preference
B) Information
C) Access
D) Temporary restraint

Question 18

The basic argument behind The Rational Public is that the _______ public has rational views and the government should pay closer attention to them.

A) minority
B) majority
C) collective
D) educated

Question 19

Which book makes the argument that, taken together, the views of a random collection of people add up to a rational public?

A) The Wisdom of Crowds
B) The American Voter
C) The Informed Public
D) The Rationale of Crowds

Question 20

What term describes the tendency among a small group of decision makers to converge on a shared set of views?

A) Like-mindedness
B) Groupthink
C) Shared outlook
D) None of the above

Question 21

All of the following encourage creative thinking and solutions to policy problems except

A) groupthink.
B) random selection of participants.
C) open dialogue.
D) self-criticism.

Question 22

In order for public opinion to guide government, according to the text, how many conditions must be met?

A) Three
B) Four
C) Five
D) Six

Question 23

Public views are _______ followed blindly by politicians.

A) rarely
B) almost always
C) always
D) never

Question 24

An election winner may claim to have political authority based on _______ demonstrating the approval of the people.

A) An ideological adjustment
B) A mandate
C) A winner-take-all victory
D) None of the above

Question 25

What can change public opinion?

A) Public indifference
B) Popular president
C) Major event
D) Unhappy voters

Question 26

_______ research is defined as the systematic study of a defined population, analyzing a representative sample's views to draw inferences about the larger population's views.

A) Survey
B) Qualitative
C) In-person
D) Random-digit dialing

Question 27

Approximately how much is spent on campaign polling annually in the United States?

A) $10 million
B) $100 million
C) $750 million
D) $1 billion

Question 28

"Eighty percent of Americans support the president" is an example of what type of rating?

A) Campaign
B) Approval
C) Establishment
D) None of the above

Question 29

Which president initiated the practice of private presidential polling?

A) Franklin D. Roosevelt
B) John F. Kennedy
C) Abraham Lincoln
D) Herbert Hoover

Question 30

The amount spent by American politicians on pollsters is _______ the amounts spent by the leaders of other nations.

A) less than
B) more than
C) about the same as
D) not comparable to

Question 31

Public opinion is often viewed as

A) unreliable.
B) reliable.
C) changeable.
D) available for purchase.

Question 32

Presidents may claim to have the approval of the people because of

A) the Electoral College.
B) legislative control.
C) mandates.
D) judicial nominations.

Question 33

Polls help identify the _______, which includes the issues that the public considers important.

A) agenda
B) framework
C) legitimation of policy
D) evaluation of policy

Question 34

Members of Congress are often _______ to legislate in the face of strong popular opposition.

A) reluctant
B) likely
C) willing
D) required

Question 35

President Trump's tweets are followed by millions and help shape

A) congressional votes.
B) political campaigns.
C) supporters' views.
D) opponents' voting patterns.

Question 36

A sampling _______ is a designated group of people from whom poll respondents are randomly selected.

A) frame
B) error
C) measure
D) statistic

Question 37

The sampling frame in a public survey should represent diverse aspects and characteristics of the _______, for conclusions to be drawn about this group.

A) population
B) sample
C) random sample
D) stratified sample

Question 38

_______ voters are those who will probably turn out in an upcoming election.

A) Likely
B) Registered
C) Campaign-friendly
D) Committed

Question 39

Generally, the closer to Election Day a poll is taken, the _______ it is.

A) less accurate
B) more accurate
C) less rigorous
D) more rigorous

Question 40

Generally, the further away from Election Day a poll is taken, the _______ it is.

A) less accurate
B) more accurate
C) less rigorous
D) more rigorous

Question 41

According to the text, polls targeting _______ voters more accurately predict the outcome of most elections.

A) likely
B) registered
C) campaign-friendly
D) committed

Question 42

Asking people to respond to a poll on a Friday night demonstrates lack of consideration of which principle of polling?

A) Location
B) Timing
C) Proximity
D) Courteousness

Question 43

In survey research, what is the term for inaccurate poll responses?

A) Interference
B) Noise
C) Statistically insignificant findings
D) None of the above

Question 44

Framing effects relate to the _______ of a question.

A) wording
B) punctuation
C) spelling
D) content

Question 45

_______ effects are the influences on respondents of how a polling question is asked.

A) Framing
B) Scaling
C) Sampling
D) Falsifying

Question 46

When groups want to skew survey results what process would be most helpful?

A) Framing
B) Scaling
C) Sampling
D) Falsifying

Question 47

A _______ poll is a form of negative campaigning that masquerades as a regular opinion survey.

A) survey research
B) partial
C) push
D) pull

Question 48

What is considered the polling gold standard?

A) Random sample
B) Self-selected sample
C) Semi-random sample
D) Weighted sample

Question 49

Samples of the population should be _______ of that population.

A) representative
B) suggestive
C) independent
D) respectful

Question 50

Polling by calling cell phones must use which of the following methods?

A) Dialing by hand
B) Automated dialing
C) Selective dialing
D) None of the above

Question 51

Today, more than _______ of Americans rely on mobile phones.

A) 47 percent
B) 50 percent
C) 54 percent
D) 65 percent

Question 52

What does a 3 percent margin of error mean?

A) 3 percent of the people responded
B) Plus or minus 3 percent
C) 3 percent of the people did not respond
D) 3 percent answered positively

Question 53

A margin of _______ is a statistical calculation for how accurate a poll's results are.

A) error
B) analysis
C) bias
D) framework

Question 54

As a general rule, the larger the sample size, the _______ the margin of sampling error.

A) larger
B) smaller
C) less affected
D) less important

Question 55

The margin of sampling error is the degree of _______ of a poll.

A) randomness
B) inaccuracy
C) representativeness
D) response bias

Question 56

If you surveyed every individual in a population, the margin of error would be

A) 0 percent.
B) 1 percent.
C) 3 percent.
D) 5 percent.

Question 57

_______ bias is the tendency of poll respondents to misstate their views, frequently to avoid expressing "shameful" opinions.

A) Selection
B) Response
C) Sampling error
D) Random error

Question 58

What bias reflects a respondent's desire to answer a question in a way that is "acceptable"?

A) Random error
B) Response
C) Sampling error
D) Selection

Question 59

The Bradley effect is a response bias based on

A) age.
B) race.
C) income.
D) sexual orientation.

Question 60

The apparent inclination of some survey respondents to avoid appearing racist or racially motivated is known as the _______ effect.

A) Bradford
B) Bradley
C) Miranda
D) poor sampling

Question 61

What magazine used polling to predict presidential elections and predicted the wrong winner in 1936?

A) Literary Digest
B) Reader's Digest
C) Good Housekeeping
D) Political Digest

Question 62

The Literary Digest started polling to predict presidential elections in what year?

A) 1910
B) 1920
C) 1950
D) 1951

Question 63

Pollsters predicted that who would win the presidential race in 2016?

A) Hillary Clinton
B) Donald Trump
C) Bernie Sanders
D) Barack Obama

Question 64

The Literary Digest incorrectly predicted that who would lose in 1936?

A) Franklin D. Roosevelt
B) Woodrow Wilson
C) Warren Harding
D) John F. Kennedy

Question 65

What contributed to the incorrect prediction from the Literary Digest poll during President Franklin Roosevelt's election?

A) Sampling frame
B) Response bias
C) Oversampling
D) None of the above

Question 66

Converse found that when people were asked the same question at different times, their answers tended to

A) change.
B) remain similar.
C) reverse direction.
D) remain exactly the same.

Question 67

Cues gained from everyday life are known as which of the following?

A) Information shortcuts
B) Details
C) Information cues
D) None of the above

Question 68

Presidents usually are more responsive to

A) the people who elected them.
B) Congress.
C) the courts.
D) the media.

Question 69

Savvy message consultants can use public opinion for

A) manipulation.
B) voter identification.
C) agenda setting.
D) policy creation.

Question 70

Public opinion was first mentioned by a public official in

A) the United States.
B) France.
C) Britain.
D) Canada.

Question 71

In what year was public opinion first mentioned by a public official?

A) 1620
B) 1776
C) 1788
D) 1789

Question 72

What percentage of the "Silent Generation" approve of marijuana legalization?

A) 71 percent
B) 35 percent
C) 20 percent
D) 25 percent

Question 73

What percentage of millennials believe that abortions should be legal?

A) 82 percent
B) 78 percent
C) 70 percent
D) 54 percent

Question 74

What effect is demonstrated by people who want to hold the same views as the majority?

A) Bandwagon effect
B) Boomerang effect
C) Tiled-floor effect
D) "Golden" effect

Question 75

What effect is demonstrated when candidates who are leading in the polls tend to pick up support from voters who were undecided?

A) Bandwagon effect
B) Boomerang effect
C) Tiled-floor effect
D) Underdog effect

Question 76

What effect is described as the discrepancy between candidates' high poll ratings and election performance?

A) Bandwagon effect
B) Boomerang effect
C) Tiled-floor effect
D) "Golden" effect

Question 77

When people do not vote because polls indicate that their candidate is in the lead, and their candidate then loses the election, which effect is shown?

A) Bandwagon effect
B) Boomerang effect
C) Tiled-floor effect
D) "Golden" effect

Question 78

The _______ effect is defined as sympathy for a candidate behind in the polls, contributing to a higher-than-predicted vote total.

A) bandwagon effect
B) boomerang effect
C) underdog effect
D) "golden" effect

Question 79

On average, which candidates do women prefer?

A) Republican
B) Democratic
C) Libertarian
D) Women do not demonstrate systematic preferences.

Question 80

By what percentage did women vote Democrat in the 2018 midterms?

A) 23 percent
B) 59 percent
C) 36 percent
D) 15 percent