Deck 6: Public Opinion

Question 1

People are more likely to approve of the president during times of economic duress.

Answer 1

False

Question 2

Changes in the policy mood

A) tend to have no effect on policy outcomes.
B) tend to effect policy outcomes.
C) are typically not known to national leaders.
D) are typically known but ignored by national leaders.

Answer 2

B

Question 3

Ideology and party identification are largely consistent over time.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

Focus groups generally yield a more accurate depiction of public opinion than large-scale surveys.

Question 5

Modern theories of public opinion

A) tend to focus exclusively on ideology.
B) tend to focus on opinions that are pre-formed.
C) tend to focus on opinions that are formed on the spot.
D) tend to focus on opinions that are pre-formed and those that are formed on the spot.

Question 6

If a person describes herself or himself as moderate, she or he is expressing her or his ________.

A) ideology
C) latent opinion
B) party identification
D) socialization

Question 7

Surveys reveal that the average American is fairly content with the federal government.

Question 8

Which one of the following is accurate about public opinion?

A) Many opinions are latent.
B) Many opinions fluctuate a great deal.
C) Americans are well informed on a wide range of policy issues.
D) Ideology and party identification are largely inconsistent over time.

Question 9

The United States has experienced a significant increase in ideological polarization in the past thirty years.

Question 10

The top policy priorities for Americans tend to change significantly from one year to the next.

Question 11

An individual would be expressing a latent opinion if asked for the first time to state a position on a complicated issue such as deficit reduction.

Question 12

Most people have political opinions that are similar to those of their parents.

Question 13

Which one of the following is accurate about President Obama's approval rating?

A) He was not very popular in the first year of his presidency.
B) His approval rating has fluctuated dramatically throughout his presidency.
C) He was more popular at the beginning of his presidency than in subsequent years.
D) He was more popular in the middle of his presidency than in the beginning, unlike most presidents.

Question 14

Internet polls are considered more credible than those that use random digit dialing, because Internet polls typically rely on a more advanced method of random sampling.

Question 15

In order to generate an error rate of plus or minus 3 percent, national pollsters need to survey at least 10,000 voters to yield credible results.

Question 16

Public opinion is best defined as

A) the amount of complexity about an individual's beliefs.
B) an opinion formed on the spot.
C) the process by which an individual learns about politics.
D) what the public thinks about government and politics.

Question 17

Some beliefs, such as party identification or ideology, can change quickly in response to external events.

Question 18

The main reason that few people have consistent, stable beliefs is because they are forming opinions on the spot.

Question 19

When we describe where a person falls on the conservative-moderate-liberal spectrum, we are referring to her or his ________.

A) party identification
C) latent opinion
B) ideology
D) policy perspective

Question 20

American public opinion is shaped

A) almost exclusively by political partisanship.
B) almost exclusively by political ideology.
C) by a wide variety of beliefs and ideas.
D) mostly by the mass media.

Question 21

How did the terrorist attacks in 2001 affect public opinion?

A) Many Americans were unwilling to allow the government to restrict their civil liberties.
B) Many Americans were willing to allow the government to restrict their civil liberties but only for a few months after the crisis.
C) Many Americans were willing to allow the government to restrict their civil liberties but only until Barack Obama became president in 2009.
D) Many Americans were willing to allow the government to restrict their civil liberties and continue to support the restrictions.

Question 22

Which one of the following is an example of cohort effects?

A) that people with high agreeableness are more likely to favor economic policies that help the disadvantaged
B) until the 1970s, relatively few native white southerners identified with the Republican Party
C) the failure of President Clinton to enact health care reform in 1994
D) the increasing ideological polarization in Congress

Question 23

What does it mean that people often form opinions on the spot?

A) Those opinions have essentially no meaning to the people who profess them.
B) People are sensitive to, and form their opinions based on, what they have recently seen or heard.
C) Their opinions are ill-informed and therefore are not counted in surveys.
D) We can only really tell what people believe by using sophisticated survey techniques.

Question 24

What is political socialization?

A) the process by which people become educated about liberal arts
B) attitudes toward social issues that come up in politics
C) the influence of politicians on people's views about society
D) the process by which an individual's political opinions are shaped by others

Question 25

Where do most people's political opinions and ideologies start forming?

A) interactions with their parents and families
B) watching the mass media
C) the success of the president during their childhood
D) interactions with their teachers

Question 26

Which one of the following statements is accurate?

A) Most people's political opinions are latent and are only formed when needed.
B) People have strong and informed opinions regarding economic issues only.
C) Most people seek out information on political issues but often fail to comprehend what they read or hear.
D) People typically have well-formed opinions on most issues because of the abundance of news and political information available on the Internet.

Question 27

Research demonstrates that growing up in a homogeneous community

A) increases an adult's sense of civic duty.
B) decreases the likelihood of voting in an election.
C) increases support for Democrats.
D) increases support for Republicans.

Question 28

When is a president likely to have a higher approval rating?

A) when inflation is high
B) when unemployment is high
C) when economic growth is high
D) when there is a high-profile scandal

Question 29

Political scientist John Zaller showed that opinion changes generated by an event or some other piece of new information are more likely when

A) the individual follows politics closely and knows that political issues can be complicated.
B) the individual is more highly educated and is used to considering different possibilities.
C) the individual is liberal and open-minded about different ideas and explanations.
D) the individual does not have a set of preexisting principles with which to interpret the event.

Question 30

The average person

A) rarely changes her or his opinion on a policy issue.
B) only changes her or his opinion on a policy issue when a major event happens.
C) changes her or his opinion on a policy issue fairly routinely.
D) is very indecisive when it comes to views on public policy issues.

Question 31

Native white southerners

A) tend to favor the Democratic Party.
B) tend to be more inclined to favor same-sex marriage.
C) tend to be less inclined to support affirmative action.
D) tend to be more inclined to favor government intervention in racial matters.

Question 32

Self-identified Republicans and Democrats judge government spending differently depending on whether a Republican or Democrat made the proposal. This demonstrates that

A) poll results depend on the wording of the question.
B) most people form their opinions on the spot using a wide range of considerations.
C) random samples are hard to obtain.
D) party leaders manipulate voters into supporting their ideas.

Question 33

The fact that people are socialized into politics by their family and community means that

A) they never modify their political principles.
B) their opinions almost never change.
C) very little thought goes into political opinions.
D) events early in life can affect one's sense of civic duty into adulthood.

Question 34

What is the most common relationship between parents and children when it comes to political ideology and partisanship?

A) They tend to have different political opinions because of their different generations.
B) They often disagree on the most controversial political issues because children tend to rebel against their parents.
C) They rarely agree on who to vote for in an election because young people do not have a strong political identity and can change their minds frequently.
D) They tend to share the same political ideology and partisanship; family is a strong and early force in political socialization.

Question 35

Which one of the following statements is accurate about public opinion on the gun control debate?

A) Support for gun control typically decreases in the days after a mass shooting.
B) Public outrage about mass shootings typically translates into congressional action on new gun control legislation.
C) Public support for gun control generally fades in the weeks and months following a mass shooting.
D) Americans generally oppose gun control legislation regardless of the level of violence in society.

Question 36

According to political scientists Jack Citrin and David Sears, most people in the United States think of themselves as

A) Americans, first and foremost.
B) members of a racial group, first and foremost.
C) members of an ethnic group, first and foremost.
D) members of a generational group, first and foremost.

Question 37

Which one of the following statements is accurate?

A) Support for democracy is higher among those individuals who take a high school civics class.
B) People are generally not influenced by their communities when it comes to political attitudes.
C) People who have high levels of agreeableness tend to favor less spending for the disadvantaged.
D) There tends to be a low correlation between the party identification of parents and their children.

Question 38

Cohort effects exist because

A) liberals and conservatives have significant political differences.
B) of an increasingly declining trust in American government and its elected officials.
C) there are genetic differences that divide those in different cohorts.
D) individuals learn about politics from the people around them.

Question 39

A female college student is asked to take a survey. One of the questions asks about her views on the new head of the Environmental Protection Agency. While the young woman had not really thought about this matter before, she was able to come up with an answer. This is an example of a ________.

A) policy mood
C) partisan identification
B) latent opinion
D) policy perception

Question 40

What is a latent opinion?

A) a description of whether a person is conservative or liberal
B) a long-held, durable belief
C) a view formed on the spot, as needed
D) an attitude about the proper level of government spending

Question 41

An issue scale

A) is a way of measuring people's preferences.
B) is always biased.
C) offers respondents one response.
D) tends to be very lengthy.

Question 42

A ________ is a way to measure public opinion by interviewing ________ population.

A) mass survey; the entire
B) mass survey; a large sample of the
C) focus group; the entire
D) focus group; a large sample of the

Question 43

The purpose of a mass survey is to

A) influence the public to support a particular candidate or policy.
B) measure the attitudes of a particular population.
C) instruct elected officials on the rules of Congress.
D) educate and inform the public about details of public policy.

Question 44

Nate Silver of 538.com is known for what technique?

A) using Internet surveys to conduct his polls
B) creating an average of polls that is more accurate than any individual poll
C) conducting daily polls to get a more accurate reading
D) writing poll questions in such a way that they push people toward a certain answer

Question 45

What kind of poll is used to affect, rather than measure, public opinion?

A) a push poll
C) a random sample poll
B) a robo poll
D) an exit poll

Question 46

According to political scientists Donald Green, Bradley Palmquist, and Eric Schickler, how do group identities shape the decision someone makes when choosing between being a Republican and a Democrat?

A) Group identities often influence socioeconomic status, which affects partisanship.
B) Group identities affect one's self-esteem, which influences partisanship.
C) Group identities influence a person's trust in government, which affects partisanship.
D) A person picks the party that has more members from the groups with whom the person identifies.

Question 47

What is one way to get a good sample for a mass survey?

A) volunteered responses
C) push polls
B) random digit dialing
D) convenience sampling

Question 48

Which one of the following statements is true?

A) Sampling error can be eliminated from a mass survey.
B) Sampling error is usually lower if the majority of the sample includes people with a bachelor's degree.
C) Sampling error is usually lower if the majority of the sample includes people with strong political opinions.
D) Sampling error decreases as the size of the sample gets larger.

Question 49

A new development in measuring public opinion in recent years is

A) to utilize more focus groups.
B) to weigh data from different polls based on their accuracy in previous elections.
C) to go door to door asking survey questions.
D) to use push polling techniques.

Question 50

Most national polls today are conducted ________.

A) by telephone
C) by mail
B) in face-to-face interviews
D) via the Internet

Question 51

Why is social desirability bias a problem for surveys?

A) It increases sampling error.
B) The results fail to account for the opinions of the poor.
C) The answers from respondents are not truthful.
D) It skews the results in favor of Republican candidates.

Question 52

Social desirability bias occurs

A) when people give answers they think the interviewer wants to hear.
B) when people are honest about their opinions.
C) when people are trying to be politically incorrect.
D) when people refuse to participate in a poll.

Question 53

Survey results are most likely to be accurate

A) when they are based on a simple question.
B) when they are based on multiple questions.
C) when they are based on complex issues.
D) when they are based on an unfamiliar topic.

Question 54

According to political scientists Lawrence Jacobs and Robert Shapiro, politicians play an active role in creating public opinion by

A) paying for push polls that will produce the results they want.
B) conducting town hall interviews with voters.
C) framing the way they put forward proposals to try and sway the public.
D) spending campaign money on television advertising.

Question 55

Which one of the following is true about mass surveys?

A) They have become more accurate over time because of the increase in Internet polls.
B) They have become so sophisticated that scientists have been able to eliminate any margin of error.
C) They are a powerful tool for measuring public opinion but should be interpreted carefully.
D) They should never be trusted because samples are almost always biased.

Question 56

Which one of the following statements is accurate?

A) The way that questions are worded typically does not bias the results of a public opinion poll.
B) How questions are worded can affect the results of a public opinion poll.
C) Credible public opinion polls are conducted on the Internet.
D) Credible public opinion polls are done via a face-to-face interviews.

Question 57

The purpose of a focus group is to

A) gain deep insights into why people hold the opinions they do.
B) ensure the accuracy of a mass survey.
C) eliminate sampling error.
D) provide a less expensive and less labor-intensive way to conduct a mass survey.

Question 58

What does an issue scale ask people?

A) to state how close they are to one of several policy options
B) how liberal or conservative they feel
C) why they are Republican or Democrat
D) to identify their socioeconomic status

Question 59

Which one of the following statements about sampling error is accurate?

A) A sample size of 100 typically results in a sampling error of 1 percent.
B) Sampling error generally decreases as the sample size increases.
C) A sample size of 1,000 typically results in a sampling error of 6 percent.
D) Sample size generally does not matter in national public opinion polls.

Question 60

Survey results are most likely to be accurate when

A) the survey is completed through a face-to-face interview.
B) the survey oversamples highly educated respondents.
C) the questions are based on a topic familiar to most Americans.
D) the questions are complex and convoluted.

Question 61

Are Americans ideological by their very nature? Be sure to cite polling data by way of response.

Question 62

What is the current policy mood?

A) It is in favor of government action at the state level but not at the federal level.
B) It strongly favors government action because of continuing unemployment.
C) It is generally neutral toward government action.
D) Opposition to government action is as high as it has been since World War II.

Question 63

When many citizens take on strongly conservative or strongly liberal identities, it is called ________.

A) opinion formation
C) ideological polarization
B) political socialization
D) political maturity

Question 64

About ________ of the electorate hold consistent ideological beliefs.

A) one-third
C) two-thirds
B) one-half
D) three-fourths

Question 65

Although Americans generally tend to dislike ________, they are relatively happy with ________.

A) their own representatives; the American political system
B) the U.S. Congress as a whole; their own representatives
C) both of their state's U.S. senators; their representative in the U.S. House
D) democracy; their own representatives

Question 66

What was the policy mood during the late 1970s and early 1980s?

A) conservative
B) liberal
C) It alternated between conservative and liberal extremes.
D) moderate

Question 67

Which one of the following best describes the liberal-conservative profile of the American public?

A) A majority of Americans describe themselves as conservative.
B) Most Americans are neither strongly conservative nor strongly liberal.
C) Most Americans lean toward being more liberal than conservative or moderate.
D) Americans are deeply divided, with most of them being either strongly liberal or strongly conservative.

Question 68

Do Americans currently have a high level of trust in government? Explain.

Question 69

What typically happens in the immediate aftermath of a mass shooting and then six months later?

Question 70

About ________ percent of Americans believe that global warming is a top policy priority.

A) 18
C) 58
B) 38
D) 78

Question 71

Americans' collective demands for government action on domestic policies are measured by ________.

A) ideological polarization
B) policy mood
C) trust in government
D) the reelection rates of incumbent officeholders

Question 72

What is the process of political socialization and why is it so important?

Question 73

The one issue that is almost always among the top three in surveys asking Americans about the most important problem facing the country is ________.

A) the economy
C) education
B) foreign affairs
D) campaign finance reform

Question 74

Why does a low level of trust in government matter?

A) It leads to high voter turnout.
B) It creates less competitive elections.
C) It can lead to elected officials pandering to their voters.
D) It makes it harder for elected officials to enact new policies.

Question 75

Discuss current public opinion on global warming and gun control and explain why it is important.

Question 76

What are typically the top policy priorities for American voters?

Question 77

What is policy mood and why is it so important?

Question 78

When policy mood leans in a liberal direction, how does government tend to respond?

A) by giving tax cuts and tax credits to corporations
B) by expanding the federal government's role in different programs
C) by cutting off foreign trade
D) by following policies designed to reduce deficit spending

Question 79

Most people in America describe themselves as ________.

A) Democrats
C) Republicans
B) Independents
D) Libertarians

Question 80

What are latent opinions and why are they so important in politics?