Deck 6: Public Opinion

Question 1

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.

Answer 1

C

Question 2

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

Answer 2

B

Question 3

A vast majority of Americans describe themselves as

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

Answer 3

C

Question 4

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.

Question 5

George W.Bush called himself a "compassionate conservative" in order to show that he favored

A)regressive tax policies.
B)programs that assist the poor and needy.
C)the elimination of the earned income tax credit.
D)drastically cutting the size of the American military.

Question 6

Support for freedom of speech, a free internet, and the press is

A)higher in the United States than in most other countries in the world.
B)lower in the United States than in most other countries in the world.
C)roughly the same in the United States as most other countries in the world.
D)nearly nonexistent in the United States.

Question 7

________ is the core political value MOST highly prioritized by American conservatives.

A)Liberty
B)Equality
C)Family
D)Justice

Question 8

"Affective intelligence" refers to the

A)fact that people often determine their policy preferences and voting decisions through rational calculations of costs and benefits.
B)skill that some political leaders and media communicators have to make their audiences feel empathy for others.
C)fact that individuals will often quickly form opinions in response to current events by using their emotions as a guide.
D)belief that one's feelings are right, even if well-accepted facts contradict these feelings.

Question 9

The term public opinion is used to describe

A)the president's collected speeches and writings during his or her term in office.
B)the analysis of events broadcast by reporters during the evening news.
C)beliefs and attitudes toward different issues, events, and people.
D)the U.S.Supreme Court's decisions.

Question 10

________ is the most important core value of liberalism.

A)Liberty
B)Democracy
C)Equality
D)Justice

Question 11

Which of the following statements best describes current controversies about immigration among conservatives?

A)There is a division of opinion among conservatives, with pro-business conservatives opposing immigration and social conservatives strongly supporting immigration to the United States.
B)There is a division of opinion among conservatives, with pro-business conservatives accepting immigration and social conservatives strongly opposing immigration to the United States.
C)There is no division of opinion among conservatives because almost all conservatives accept immigration.
D)There is no division of opinion among conservatives because almost all conservatives strongly oppose immigration.

Question 12

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 13

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 14

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 15

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 16

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

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

Question 17

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 18

Libertarianism is a political ideology that

A)argues governments are inherently repressive and should be abolished entirely.
B)argues 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 19

Bernie Sanders is best described as a ________, while Rand Paul is best described as a ________.

A)libertarian; democratic socialist
B)libertarian; conservative
C)conservative; libertarian
D)democratic socialist; libertarian

Question 20

Liberalism and conservatism are examples of

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

Question 21

Which U.S.president ushered in the tax revolt and the deregulation of many government policies in the 1980s?

A)Jimmy Carter
B)Richard Nixon
C)George W.Bush
D)Ronald Reagan

Question 22

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 23

Latinos currently make up approximately ________ percent of the U.S.population.

A)3
B)6
C)10
D)17

Question 24

The tendency for black Americans to perceive other blacks as members of a group with a common identity and a shared political interest is called

A)reverse racism.
B)symbolic racism.
C)linked fate.
D)intergroup commonality.

Question 25

The process by which political values are formed is known as

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

Question 26

What did the framers identify as the greatest source of political conflict for the United States?

A)racial inequalities
B)geographic differences
C)differences between the rich and poor
D)conflicts between central and local governments

Question 27

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 28

The fact that many middle-class and lower-middle-class citizens who did not stand to benefit from President George W.Bush's tax cuts seemed to favor them is an example of the

A)importance of political knowledge.
B)importance of self-interest.
C)importance of political efficacy.
D)"spiral of silence."

Question 29

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 30

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 31

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

A)that men and women have roughly the same overall levels of support for abortion
B)that men are more supportive of Donald Trump's presidency than women
C)that women earn, on average, less than men
D)that women received the right to vote in the United States long after most men did

Question 32

A wealthy businessperson who is very liberal is an example of the

A)fact that group memberships can fully explain all of an individual's political views.
B)fact that group memberships never fully explain all of an individual's political views.
C)power of the bandwagon effect.
D)negative consequences of the power of the mass media.

Question 33

The transition many white southerners made from the Democratic to the Republican Party in the 1960s is a good example of the

A)changes in political conditions and circumstances in the South, rather than in opinions or values.
B)growing conservative ideology in the South.
C)growing liberal ideology in the South.
D)rise of labor unions and other associations in the South.

Question 34

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 35

The fact that liberals choose to live in neighborhoods, cities, counties, and states that are more liberal while conservatives move to areas with populations with more conservative views is called

A)geographic sorting.
B)redlining.
C)political socialization.
D)NIMBY-ism.

Question 36

Large cities have predominantly ________ populations, while ________ are more numerous in rural and suburban areas.

A)Republican; Democrats
B)Democratic; Republicans
C)Socialist; Democrats
D)Democratic; Socialists

Question 37

A person's political party preference is primarily acquired through the influence of the

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

Question 38

California shifted from a Republican stronghold in the 1970s to a solidly Democratic state today primarily due to

A)the end of the Cold War.
B)the Watergate scandal and the Vietnam War.
C)immigration and demographic change.
D)September 11, 2001, and the Iraq War.

Question 39

Since 1970, the number of first-generation immigrants living in the United States has

A)remained relatively unchanged.
B)more than doubled in size.
C)more than tripled in size.
D)more than quadrupled in size.

Question 40

The South's move from voting for the Democratic Party to voting for the Republican Party in the 1960s was the result of

A)18-year-olds winning the right to vote through the ratification of the Twenty-Sixth Amendment.
B)Cuban immigrants becoming a larger share of citizens living in southern states.
C)white southerners' opposition to the Democratic Party's integrationist racial policies.
D)black southerners' support of the Republican Party's willingness to support tax cuts and increased military spending.

Question 41

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 42

In 2002, Congress passed which of the following laws related to the invasion of Iraq?

A)the Congressional Declaration of War on Terrorism
B)the Joint Resolution in Favor of Operation Enduring Freedom
C)the Congressional Declaration of War Against Iraq
D)the Joint Resolution to Authorize the Use of United States Armed Forces Against Iraq

Question 43

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 44

If public support for same-sex marriage increased significantly after a court decision legalizing marriage between couples of the same sex, it would be an example of

A)"rational political interest."
B)"online processing."
C)"policy feedback."
D)"voting correctly."

Question 45

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 46

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 47

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 48

The ________ model states that individuals keep a running tally of information and use that tally to form their opinions.

A)online processing
B)"receive," "accept," "sample"
C)memory
D)motivated reasoning

Question 49

Which of the following statements best describes the relationship between public opinion and government policy?

A)Public opinion always shifts in opposition to government policy once the policy has been implemented.
B)Public opinion always shifts in favor of government policy once the policy has been implemented.
C)Shifts in public opinion always lead to changes in government policy.
D)Although there is no one-to-one correlation between public opinion and government policy, shifts in public opinion on particular issues frequently lead to changes in government policy.

Question 50

According to John Zaller's model of opinion formation, the "sample" stage occurs when a(n)

A)individual limits his or her attention to a small group of political controversies rather than learning about a wide range of issues.
B)news network interviews a small number of people about their reactions to a particular political event.
C)individual talks to a randomly selected group of people in order to determine his or her opinion on an issue.
D)individual selects the most relevant or most recently acquired and accepted information from his or her "bucket" of information in response to a survey question.

Question 51

More affluent and educated citizens wield an outsized influence over policy makers because

A)the majority of affluent and educated citizens personally know an elected official.
B)the emoluments clause of the Constitution compels elected officials to give preferential treatment to citizens with a college degree.
C)they vote at higher rates, and they are more likely to contribute money to political campaigns.
D)their opinions are of higher quality than those of less affluent and less educated citizens.

Question 52

Research into public opinion and public policy has shown that

A)every citizen has an equally strong influence over politics and public policy decisions.
B)more affluent and more educated citizens have a disproportionate influence over politics and public policy decisions.
C)less affluent and less educated citizens have a disproportionate influence over politics and public policy decisions.
D)nonvoters have a disproportionate influence over politics and public policy decisions.

Question 53

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 54

"Policy feedback" occurs when

A)government policy shifts in response to changes in public opinion.
B)public opinion shifts in response to changes in government policy.
C)interest groups provide congressional testimony during the lawmaking process.
D)members of the federal bureaucracy report to Congress about a law's effectiveness.

Question 55

According to the online processing model, members of the public may appear to be politically uninformed because

A)by the time they actually voice an opinion on an issue, they are likely to have forgotten much of the information that helped them arrive at their opinion.
B)they spend a great deal of time each day consuming nonpolitical content on the internet.
C)they spend a great deal of time each day consuming nonpolitical content on television.
D)their commitment to privacy makes them deeply unwilling to reveal to public opinion pollsters how much they actually know about politics.

Question 56

Which of the following statements about public opinion in America is MOST accurate?

A)Political knowledge is fairly high in America.
B)Citizens with low levels of knowledge are generally better able to evaluate new information and determine its relevancy to their beliefs.
C)Citizens with high levels of knowledge are generally better able to evaluate new information to determine its relevancy to their beliefs.
D)Politically knowledgeable citizens are more likely to consider themselves independent and not have a liberal or conservative ideology.

Question 57

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 58

The three steps of John Zaller's model of opinion formation are

A)receive, accept, and sample.
B)listen, consider, and adapt.
C)receive, repeat, and react.
D)listen, respond, and sample.

Question 59

The American public's support for same-sex marriage

A)has remained unchanged since 2004.
B)has increased by 25 percentage points in the last two decades.
C)has decreased by 25 percentage points in the last two decades.
D)increased by 25 percentage points between 2000 and 2004 but decreased by 10 points since 2004.

Question 60

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 is free, whereas the mainstream press often charges monetary fees for broadcasting messages.

Question 61

Which of the following statements about contemporary public opinion is MOST accurate?

A)Elected officials are more responsive to the poor than the rich.
B)Technology has eliminated the challenges of "filter bubbles" in the United States.
C)The internet has reduced the amount of political information available to the public.
D)Digital citizenship offers the promise of a more informed electorate.

Question 62

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 63

The term big data refers to data sets that

A)measure attributes of groups, organizations, or nations rather than attributes of single individuals.
B)are so large and complex that they require advanced analytics, rather than traditional methods, to reveal insights on a massive scale.
C)have a major impact on policy making.
D)are paid for by large corporations.

Question 64

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 candidate A

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

Question 65

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.

Question 66

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 67

One explanation for why Trump performed better at the ballot box than in the public opinion polls is that

A)the questions asked by survey organizations about Trump were always worded in a derogatory fashion.
B)survey organizations conducted only internet-based surveys in 2016.
C)some people may have been reluctant to tell an interviewer that they supported Trump given that he was so controversial.
D)survey organizations intentionally minimized the number of Republicans and conservatives they included in their samples.

Question 68

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 69

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 70

In order for a survey to accurately generalize 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 71

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 72

The typical margin of error in a sample survey of 1,500 respondents is ________ percent.

A)0.1
B)0.5
C)1.0
D)2.5

Question 73

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 74

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 75

"Retail politics" refers to

A)attempts made by political machines in the nineteenth century to buy votes from citizens through cash payments.
B)debates about how extensively government should regulate the manufacture and sale of consumer goods.
C)campaigns in which candidates meet citizens face-to-face to discuss politics.
D)government-run auctions to sell public property.

Question 76

The Lincoln-Douglas debates took place

A)through a series of competing newspaper editorials.
B)on radio, making it the first political broadcast in the United States.
C)outside, in the cornfields and town squares of Illinois.
D)in Madison Square Garden during the Republican Convention of 1860.

Question 77

A(n) ________ sample 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
B)equal opportunity
C)simple random
D)quota

Question 78

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 79

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 80

Using the aggregate preferences and viewing habits of millions of Netflix subscribers to make predictions about how someone will feel about political issues is an example of

A)a framing experiment.
B)a list experiment.
C)process tracing.
D)data mining.