Deck 6: Public Opinion and the Media

Question 1

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.

Answer 1

A

Question 2

People are sometimes reluctant to reveal their political opinions.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

The United States has experienced a significant increase in ideological polarization in the past 30 years.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

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

Question 5

Pollsters made some errors in assessing the 2016 presidential election, especially with regard to predicting voter turnout of specific groups.

Question 6

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

Question 7

Variation in intensity is one reason why government policies sometimes reflect minority opinions.

Question 8

Liberal parents usually end up with conservative children.

Question 9

Radio and television station executives can give advertisement airtime to any candidate of their choosing.

Question 10

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

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

Ideology and party identification are largely consistent over time.

Question 13

In recent years, newspaper circulation rates and television network viewership rates have increased.

Question 14

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

Question 15

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

Question 16

There are numerous scholarly studies that provide evidence of a systematic media bias in the
United States.

Question 17

Public opinion is best defined as

A) the complexity of 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 18

Approval of Donald Trump is typically contingent on the respondent's perspective of Trump's moral character.

Question 19

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 20

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

Question 21

Variation in intensity is one reason why

A) government policies reflect the will of the majority.
B) government policies sometimes reflect the will of the minority.
C) most Americans are conservative.
D) members of Congress support gun control legislation.

Question 22

Most people form their political opinions

A) in their early childhood.
B) well in advance of a policy debate or an election.
C) on the spot as needed.
D) after consuming extensive information about the topic at hand.

Question 23

Party identification tends to

A) change many times in one's life, as in the case of Donald Trump.
B) shift back and forth after a presidential election is held.
C) be consistent over time.
D) change every generation.

Question 24

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 25

Most people's core beliefs

A) change over time.
B) become more liberal over time.
C) become more conservative over time.
D) are fairly consistent over time.

Question 26

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

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

Question 27

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 28

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 29

Most people

A) have intense opinions on political subjects.
B) vary with regard to the intensity of their opinions on political subjects.
C) do not have opinions on political subjects.
D) generally have high levels of political knowledge.

Question 30

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 31

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 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

A lasting change in overall approval of the president would take

A) a dramatic event such as the 2001 terrorist attacks.
B) significant shifts in partisanship that are sustained over time.
C) a reelection victory.
D) a presidential veto.

Question 34

Which one of the following statements is accurate?

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

Question 35

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 whom 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.

Question 36

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 37

Latent opinions are

A) carefully constructed.
B) embraced for many years.
C) formed on the spot as needed.
D) typically biased.

Question 38

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 39

Democratic presidential candidates typically target ________ for support.

A) regular churchgoers
B) older voters
C) rural voters
D) younger voters

Question 40

People learn politics from

A) the scholars.
B) the political parties.
C) the people around them.
D) lobbyists.

Question 41

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 reducing foreign trade
D) by following policies designed to reduce deficit spending

Question 42

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 43

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 44

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 face-to-face interviews.

Question 45

A low level of trust in government

A) leads to high voter turnout.
B) creates less-competitive elections.
C) prompts pandering on the part of elected officials.
D) makes it more difficult for elected officials to make public policy.

Question 46

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 the details of public policy.

Question 47

When people respond to a poll,

A) they often give socially acceptable answers.
B) they are always brutally honest.
C) they always tell the truth about whether they voted or not.
D) they often try to offend the person asking the questions.

Question 48

The top issues for Americans have not changed over the past few decades, with the exception of ________.

A) the economy
B) Social Security
C) education
D) terrorism

Question 49

About ________ of the electorate is consistently ideological.

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

Question 50

Mass surveys

A) are not a useful gauge of public opinion.
B) are an exact measure of public opinion.
C) are rarely used in campaigns and elections.
D) provide accurate estimates of public opinion.

Question 51

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 52

Most Americans

A) are conservative.
B) are liberal.
C) have a mix of liberal and conservative positions.
D) are libertarians.

Question 53

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 54

________ occurs when citizens view the world in a dichotomous, liberal-versus-conservative manner.

A) Opinion formation
B) Political socialization
C) Ideological polarization
D) Political maturity

Question 55

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 56

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 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 57

Most people in America describe themselves as

A) Democrats.
B) Independents.
C) Republicans.
D) libertarians.

Question 58

Social desirability bias occurs when people

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

Question 59

Which one of the following statements is accurate about the 2016 presidential election?

A) Pollsters were biased against Donald Trump.
B) Pollsters were biased against Hillary Clinton.
C) Pollsters did not predict voter turnout accurately.
D) Pollsters assumed that Hillary Clinton would win so they stopped polling weeks before the election.

Question 60

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

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

Question 61

What are filtering and framing? What are the implications of both?

Question 62

What are typically the top policy priorities for American voters?

Question 63

What is policy mood and why is it so important?

Question 64

How accurate are most national polls in the United States? Explain.

Question 65

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

Question 66

Which one of following is an illustration of a hostile media effect?

A) Liberals tend to believe that the media is biased in favor of liberal candidates.
B) Conservatives tend to believe that the media is biased in favor of conservative candidates.
C) Journalists tend to accentuate negativity and conflict.
D) Democrats generally believe the media favors the Republicans.

Question 67

What is the current trend with regard to consumption rates of daily newspapers and major television networks?

Question 68

Describe the process of forming opinions.

Question 69

Media effects

A) do not exist in the United States.
B) do exist in the United States.
C) explore the extent to which media coverage has a liberal bias.
D) explore the extent to which media coverage has a conservative bias.

Question 70

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

Question 71

What does this chart indicate about public opinion in the United States?

Question 72

What is the equal time provision?

Question 73

________ regulates the broadcast media in the United States.

A) The Office of Management and Budget
B) The Federal Communications Commission
C) The Equal Time Commission
D) A private company

Question 74

Scientists contend that global warming is the most important challenge in the world today. Do Americans agree? Why or why not?

Question 75

Why does public opinion matter? Explain.

Question 76

Which one of the following statements is accurate regarding the media?

A) Cross-ownership is on the rise.
B) A media company cannot own multiple media sources.
C) Media conglomerates are on the decline.
D) There is no hostile media effect in the United States.

Question 77

Is America a polarized nation? Explain and be sure to provide specific evidence to support your response.

Question 78

What are two examples of stable public opinion over time?

Question 79

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

Question 80

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

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