Polls, Pollsters, and Public Opinion - A Guide for Decision-Makers

A vast literature exists on theories of public opinion - how to measure, analyze, predict, and influence it; however, there is no synthesis of best practices for interpreting public opinion: existing knowledge is disparate and spread across many disciplines. Polls, Pollsters, and Public Opinion presents a systematic analytical approach for understanding, predicting, and engaging public opinion. It tells the story through the eyes of the pollster and draws an analytical road map for examining public opinion, both conceptually and practically. Providing a theoretical and conceptual foundation, as well as debunking popular myths, this book delves into the science of polling, offering tools analysts can use to assess the quality of polls. It also introduces methods that can be used to predict elections and other socio-political outcomes while understanding the nuances of messaging, engaging, and moving public opinion.

List of contents

1. The Three-Hatted Pollster; Part I Fundamentals of Public Opinion: 2. What is Public Opinion?; 3. Attitude Formation at the Individual Level; 4. When Public Opinion is Stable and When it is Not; Part II. The Pollster as Data Scientist: 5. Understanding Bias and Error; 6. Assessing a Single Poll in the 2016 US Presidential Election; 7. The Case of Grexit and Assessing the Polls in Aggregate; Part III. The Pollster as Fortune Teller: 8. Cognitive Biases in Prediction; 9. Triangulated Election Prediction; 10. Public Opinion as a Decision Input for Other Outcomes; Part IV. The Pollster as Spin Doctor: 11. Engaging Public Opinion: Theory and Practice; 12. Communicating in the 2022 Brazilian Presidential Election; 13. The Pollster in Society.

About the author

Clifford Young is President of Ipsos Public Affairs in the United States and an adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins SAIS. He is an expert on consumer and public opinion trends, corporate reputation, elections and scenario construction. He also oversees Ipsos' media partnerships, including ABC News, Axios, NPR, Thomson Reuters, USA Today, the Washington Post, among others.

Summary

This is a book on public opinion told through the eyes of the pollster. It looks at public opinion as a concept and in historical context then turns to the use of public opinion practically as an analytic input; particularly, how to use it to forecast, convince, and assess.

Product details

• Authors: Clifford Young, Clifford (Ipsos Public Affairs) Young, Clifford (Ipsos Public Affairs) Ziemer Young, Kathryn Ziemer, Kathryn (Ipsos Public Affairs) Ziemer
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press ELT
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 01.06.2024
• EAN: 9781108479554
• ISBN: 978-1-108-47955-4
• No. of pages: 200
• Series: Methodological Tools in the Social Sciences
• Subjects: Social sciences, law, business > Sociology > Sociological theories; USA, POLITICAL SCIENCE / History & Theory, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Research, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Statistics, REFERENCE / Research, Political science & theory, United States of America, USA, Social research & statistics, Political science and theory, Social research and statistics, Data analysis: general, Data science and analysis: general, Research methods: general, Public Opinion & Polls, Public opinion and polls, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Public Opinion Polling, Academic style, Academism, Academicism