Deck 5: Public Opinion

Question 1

Declining levels of trust in government are important because declining trust has been linked to

A)increases in political participation and voting.
B)declines in political participation and voting.
C)higher rates of violent crime.
D)more citizens emigrate from the country.

Answer 1

B

Question 2

More Americans

A)have consistently identified as liberals than as conservatives since the 1990s.
B)have consistently identified as conservatives than as liberals since the 1990s.
C)have consistently identified as liberals than as moderates since the 1990s.
D)identified as conservatives than as liberals between 1992 and 2008,but since 2008,the number of liberals has surpassed the number of conservatives.

Answer 2

B

Question 3

A political ideology is best defined as

A)the specific preferences individuals contemplate while discussing an issue.
B)a cohesive set of beliefs that form a general philosophy about the government.
C)the concrete interests that people try to defend through public policy.
D)the various attitudes that citizens possess toward political issues,events,and people.

Answer 3

B

Question 4

The process by which political values are formed is known as

A)political socialization.
B)ideological education.
C)brainwashing.
D)value enhancing.

Question 5

In classical political theory,a liberal was closest to what we would today refer to as a

A)socialist.
B)libertarian.
C)communist.
D)anarchist.

Question 6

The term "public opinion" is used to describe

A)the president's collected speeches and writings during his term in office.
B)the analysis of events broadcast by reporters during the evening news.
C)attitudes about political issues,leaders,institutions,and events.
D)the U.S.Supreme Court's decisions.

Question 7

Liberalism and conservatism are examples of

A)public opinions.
B)political attitudes.
C)political ideologies.
D)political preferences.

Question 8

The fact that Americans strongly support minimal governmental interference with individuals'
Lives and property illustrates their commitment to

A)anarchy.
B)democracy.
C)liberty.
D)socialism.

Question 9

Opposition to legalized abortion is a position MOST likely supported by ________,while support
For legalized abortion is a position most likely supported by ________.

A)liberals; conservatives
B)conservatives; liberals
C)libertarians; conservatives
D)conservatives; libertarians

Question 10

________ generally support abortion rights and oppose state involvement with religious institutions.

A)Liberals
B)Conservatives
C)Socialists
D)Internationalists

Question 11

The difference between a political value and a political attitude is that values are

A)conservative,while attitudes are liberal.
B)liberal,while attitudes are conservative.
C)held for a short term,while attitudes are held for a long term.
D)basic principles,while attitudes are specific preferences.

Question 12

Conservatives are more likely than liberals to support

A)government regulation of business.
B)abortion rights.
C)school prayer.
D)the expansion of government programs,such as Medicaid.

Question 13

Which of the following sets of terms best describes America's fundamental political values?

A)liberal and conservative
B)internationalist and isolationist
C)independent and moderate
D)liberty,equality of opportunity,and democracy

Question 14

In international affairs,conservatism has come to mean

A)support for military intervention and the maintenance of American military power.
B)opposition to military intervention and the ramping down of American military power.
C)opposition to the United States' membership in the United Nations.
D)opposition to the continued existence of the European Union.

Question 15

The vast majority of Americans describe themselves as

A)conservatives or libertarians.
B)liberals or socialists.
C)liberals,conservatives,or moderates.
D)libertarians or socialists.

Question 16

Support for an affirmative action policy that considers an applicant's race in university admissions is an example of a political ________,while a belief in equality of opportunity is an example of a political ________.

A)ideology; attitude
B)attitude; value
C)ideology; value
D)value; ideology

Question 17

A liberal would MOST likely support

A)an expansion in governmental social services.
B)an increase in the federal military budget.
C)prayer in the public schools.
D)a reduction in foreign aid for poor countries.

Question 18

The percentage of Americans who indicate they trust the government "just about always or
Most of the time" has

A)fallen from over 70 percent in 1960 to just 15 percent in 2017.
B)fallen from 95 percent in 1960 to just 65 percent in 2017.
C)increased from just 15 percent in 1960 to more than 70 percent in 2017.
D)remained unchanged since 1960.

Question 19

Bernie Sanders is best described as a

A)libertarian.
B)conservative.
C)classical liberal.
D)democratic socialist.

Question 20

Libertarianism is a political ideology that

A)argues that governments are inherently repressive and should be abolished entirely.
B)argues that a single ruler should have total control over every aspect of people's lives.
C)argues for the need to place strict limitations on voting rights and civil liberties.
D)emphasizes freedom and voluntary association with small government.

Question 21

Which U.S.president promoted his policy agenda to the American people through "fireside chats"?

A)Warren Harding
B)Franklin D.Roosevelt
C)Harry Truman
D)John F.Kennedy

Question 22

The fact that Democratic Party leaders have become more liberal and Republican Party leaders
Have become more conservative is important because

A)Republicans have become less hawkish over time.
B)Democrats have become more hawkish over time.
C)partisans in the public tend to rely on party leaders for cues on the appropriate positions to take on major political issues.
D)partisans in the public no longer rely on party leaders for cues on the appropriate positions to take on major political issues.

Question 23

The small group selected by pollsters to represent the entire population is called a

A)validity quotient.
B)reliability quotient.
C)sample.
D)quota.

Question 24

The average American

A)exhibits little knowledge of political institutions,processes,leaders,or policy debates.
B)exhibits generally strong knowledge of political institutions,processes,leaders,and policy debates.
C)exhibits little knowledge of political institutions and processes but generally strong knowledge of political leaders and policy debates.
D)exhibits generally strong knowledge of political institutions and processes but little knowledge of political leaders or policy debates.

Question 25

Which of the following statements about the political opinions of Democrats and Republicans
In the public is the most accurate?

A)Differences between the political opinions of Democrats and Republicans are smaller today than during any other period in the last 40 years.
B)Differences between the political opinions of Democrats and Republicans are greater today than during any other period in the last 40 years.
C)The differences between the political opinions of Democrats and Republicans have been the same throughout American history and have not become more intense over the last 40 years.
D)Republicans and Democrats have similar opinions on all political issues with the exception of national security.

Question 26

Who exposed the Watergate scandal?

A)journalists at the Washington Post
B)journalists at the Boston Globe
C)journalists at the Indianapolis Star
D)journalists at the Los Angeles Times

Question 27

The fact that Americans today are likely to follow the news by briefly reading multiple headlines online rather than by reading longer news articles is referred to as

A)"browsing and breezing."
B)"searching and sampling."
C)"skimming and scanning."
D)"receiving and accepting."

Question 28

Individuals who attend church frequently are more likely to be ________ in their political
Views than people who are not religious.

A)liberal
B)conservative
C)anarchist
D)socialist

Question 29

Political leaders may prefer communicating through social media because

A)the traditional media almost never educate or persuade members of the public.
B)federal law limits what they may say to journalists from the mainstream press but not what they may say on social media sites.
C)they can directly transmit unedited messages to their followers without having the content altered by the mainstream press.
D)social media are free,whereas the mainstream press often charge monetary fees for broadcasting messages.

Question 30

Pollsters use random digit dialing to gather national samples for surveys because

A)sampling errors are typically too low when other techniques are used.
B)sampling errors are typically too high when other techniques are used.
C)there is not a complete list of all Americans that can be used to identify the population.
D)it is the only method that generates high levels of measurement error.

Question 31

What is one of the main differences between people who have gone to college and people
Who have not?

A)Those with a college education are less likely to believe that women and men should have equal roles.
B)Those with a college education are more likely to believe that abortion should never be allowed.
C)There is a higher level of political participation among those with a college education.
D)There is a lower level of political participation among those with a college education.

Question 32

Which of the following is an example of the "gender gap"?

A)Men and women have roughly the same overall levels of support for abortion.
B)Men are more supportive of Donald Trump's presidency than women.
C)Women rank much higher in terms of religiosity than men.
D)Women were granted the right to vote in the United States long after most men did.

Question 33

The percentage of Americans without any religious affiliation has

A)risen from 5 percent of the population in the 1990s to more than 25 percent today.
B)risen from 25 percent of the population in the 1990s to more than 50 percent today.
C)remained relatively constant since the 1990s.
D)declined from 20 percent in the 1990s to less than 5 percent today.

Question 34

A person's political party preferences are primarily acquired through the influence of

A)the person's family.
B)the region of the country the person inhabits.
C)the person's education.
D)the media.

Question 35

The concept of a marketplace of ideas refers to

A)important changes in copyright and patent laws that have restricted Americans' access to free information.
B)the competition between varying opinions and ideas that are aired in public forums.
C)the use of opinion pollsters who market a politician's speeches,ideas,and votes.
D)the explosion of information brought on by the internet and other advances in electronic communication.

Question 36

Which of the following statements about the marketplace of ideas is true?

A)The British created the marketplace of ideas in the seventeenth century.
B)Private groups and the news media play important roles in shaping opinions in the marketplace of ideas.
C)Exposure to the marketplace of ideas rarely leads people to change their minds about political issues.
D)Government officials are legally prohibited from promoting ideas in the marketplace of ideas.

Question 37

Which statement best describes the relationship between public opinion and government policy?

A)Government policy never influences public opinion because most Americans pay very little attention to politics.
B)Public opinion always influences government policy because lawmakers are legally bound to enact the majority's preferences.
C)The relationship between government policy and public opinion is dynamic,wherein government policy responds to public opinion but public opinion also shifts based on new government policies.
D)Government policy almost never influences public opinion.

Question 38

Conservative politicians developed and communicated the notion of a fetal "right to life"
In order to

A)unite Catholics and Protestants and link their interests to the Republican Party.
B)divide Catholics and Protestants and win over Jewish voters.
C)unite Catholics and Protestants and link their interests to the Democratic Party.
D)divide Catholics and Protestants and win over Muslim voters.

Question 39

Which statement about the distribution of fake news on Facebook in the 2016 election is most accurate?

A)The top 10 fake news stories circulated on Facebook were shared more widely than the top 10 authentic news stories about the election.
B)Although there were many fake news stories circulated on Facebook,they were shared far less frequently than nearly every authentic news story about the election.
C)Facebook put in place numerous measures to identify and ban fake news stories about the election so the overall number that were actually circulated during the election was very small.
D)Although there were many fake news stories circulated on Facebook,there was only one fake news election story (focused on Hillary Clinton's emails)that was widely shared on Facebook.

Question 40

By the time of the Iraq invasion in March 2003,the American public was

A)overwhelmingly opposed to the war,with only 5 percent of Americans endorsing the Bush administration's policy.
B)deeply divided on the war,with 50 percent of Americans endorsing and 50 percent of Americans opposing the Bush administration's policy.
C)strongly supportive of the war,with 70 percent of Americans endorsing the Bush administration's policy.
D)overwhelmingly supportive of the war,with almost 100 percent of Americans endorsing the Bush administration's policy.

Question 41

In 1936,pollsters at the Literary Digest were guilty of ________ when they mistakenly predicted
A presidential victory for Alf Landon over Franklin Roosevelt by polling people whose names
Came from the telephone book and automobile registration records.

A)probability sampling
B)random dialing
C)selection bias
D)push polling

Question 42

If a national survey finds candidate A leads candidate B by 5 percent in the upcoming election
And the margin of error in the survey is 3 percent,it means that

A)candidate A leads candidate B by exactly 5 percentage points.
B)candidate A leads candidate B by anywhere between 2 and 8 percentage points.
C)candidate A leads candidate B by exactly 3 percentage points.
D)candidate A and candidate B are statistically tied.

Question 43

The fact that survey respondents overreport voting in elections and the frequency of their church attendance is an example of the ________ effect.

A)Hawthorne
B)coattail
C)social desirability
D)bandwagon

Question 44

The practice of push polling involves

A)polling services attempting to sell their polling data to major news media organizations at higher prices during election seasons.
B)the procedure of asking loaded questions in order to subtly shape the respondent's opinion.
C)the effect of polls having to push politicians into adopting policy proposals they would not otherwise adopt.
D)the system of repeatedly calling people in the sampling frame until they respond to the survey.

Question 45

In a democracy,it is assumed that elected representatives should implement the policies favored by the people.Discuss how often public opinion actually influences government policy in the United States and whether there is any evidence that government policy might influence public opinion? Are there instances where public opinion and public policy do not align? In your answer,be sure to discuss evidence from government action and public opinion on specific issues.

Question 46

In recent years,response rates for random digit dial surveys have been

A)declining steadily and now average only 67 percent.
B)declining steadily and now average less than 15 percent.
C)increasing steadily and now average 75 percent.
D)increasing steadily and now average 95 percent.

Question 47

How are political views formed? Specifically,discuss how agents of socialization,such as the family,education,and social groups,shape individual opinions.

Question 48

What is the social desirability effect?

A)the bias in surveys that comes from the failure of pollsters to interview respondents from lower socioeconomic backgrounds
B)the strong desire that people have to express their opinions to survey researchers
C)the fact that respondents report what they think the interviewer wishes to hear or whatever they think is socially acceptable,rather than what they actually believe
D)the impression conveyed by polls that something is important to the public when actually it is not

Question 49

If a public opinion survey reports finding that a particular candidate is supported by 60 percent
Of voters and that there is a 95 percent chance that support for this candidate is somewhere
Between 63.1 percent and 56.9 percent,the 3.1 percent variation from 60 percent is called

A)the selection bias.
B)the margin of error.
C)the standard deviation.
D)the sampling distribution of the mean.

Question 50

A(n)________ is a method used by pollsters to select a representative sample in which every
Individual in the population has an equal probability of being selected as a respondent.

A)stratified sample
B)equal opportunity sample
C)simple random sample
D)quota sample

Question 51

In order for a survey accurately generalize to the entire population,the survey must

A)sample at least 10 percent of the target population.
B)sample at least 25 percent of the target population.
C)sample at least 10,000 individuals from the target population.
D)select respondents randomly and everyone in the target population must have an equal chance of being selected.

Question 52

What is the difference between a value and a political ideology? Describe some of the characteristics and beliefs that define liberalism,conservatism,socialism and libertarianism in contemporary American politics.How many Americans identify with these various ideologies?

Question 53

Some people contend that while Americans may be divided by ideology or opinion,they are united by fundamental political values.Describe these core values and discuss a specific example of how their practical interpretations might conflict.

Question 54

A frequent cause of measurement error in polls is due to

A)unresponsiveness.
B)poorly worded questions.
C)push polling.
D)the increased use of cell phones.

Question 55

Describe how public opinion is measured and some of the challenges that arise with polling.Specifically,discuss what sampling is,why sampling is used,and how the problems of social desirability effects,selection bias,the bandwagon effect,and push polling undermine survey research.

Question 56

The fact that public support for government policies declines dramatically when calling the policies "welfare" rather than "assistance for the poor" illustrates that

A)push polls sometimes produce more accurate results than traditional surveys.
B)seemingly minor differences in the wording of a question can convey vastly different meanings to survey respondents.
C)selection bias is present in every survey,regardless of how careful the researchers are.
D)the margin of error of a survey must always be considered before drawing conclusions about public opinion.

Question 57

The survey sampling method that relies on randomly selected telephone numbers is called

A)quota sampling.
B)digital convenience sampling.
C)random digit dialing.
D)stratified random sampling.

Question 58

During the 2000 South Carolina Republican primary,George W.Bush supporters telephoned conservative white voters to ask if they would be more or less likely to vote for John McCain
If they knew he had fathered an illegitimate black child.This was an example of a

A)push poll.
B)bandwagon poll.
C)saliency illusion.
D)nonresponse bias.

Question 59

If a person supports a candidate because he or she is the front-runner in a poll,it is an example of the

A)bellwether effect.
B)illusion of saliency.
C)bandwagon effect.
D)"bounce" effect.