Understanding Public Opinion: Definition, Factors, and Implications

1. Public Opinion • Objectives: • Examine the term public opinion and determine why it is • so hard to define. • Describe factors that shape public opinion. • Bell Ringer: • Going beyond the simple explanation of cynicism, speculate about the reasons for the apathy most Americans feel toward their government and officials and their low levels of knowledge about both. • Agenda: • Introduction to Public Opinion • Homework: • None unless have not finished work in class

2. Public Opinion • Objectives: • Examine the term public opinion and determine why it is • so hard to define. • Describe factors that shape public opinion. • Bell Ringer: • Are elections accurate measures of public opinion? • Agenda: • Public Opinion • Homework: • Chapter 8 Section 2 Assessment #1-7

3. Public Opinion • Objectives: • Examine the term public opinion and determine why it is • so hard to define. • Describe factors that shape public opinion. • Bell Ringer: • Political scientist V.O. Key, jr. , once described public opinion as those expressions that governments “find it prudent to heed.” Do you agree with Key’s definition? Explain your answer. • Agenda: • Public Opinion • Homework: • Use your review guide to study for Friday’s test

4. Public Opinion • Objectives: • Analyze campaign data to understand how favorability and issue polls are used. • Examine polling methods to determine which are most accurate. • Bell Ringer: • Complete the “Polling Pre-assessment” handout • Agenda: • Types of public opinion polls • Uses of public opinion polls • Homework: • Use Review Guide to help you study for test

5. Public Opinion • Objectives: • Analyze campaign data to understand how favorability and issue polls are used. • Examine polling methods to determine which are most accurate. • Bell Ringer: • How do politicians and the media use public opinion polls? What are the implications of these uses? • Agenda: • Public opinion polls • Homework: • Remainder of Ch. 7 Overview Due • Bell Ringer notebooks due 10/29(A) and 10/30 (B) • Unit 2 Test (Ch. 4, 5) November 3 (A) and 4 (B)

6. What is public opinion? • Views individuals hold about government, public • policy, society, and culture. • ·Major part of today’s American political landscape. • Reflects how people would like government to • act.

7. What is public opinion? • Since 1789, framers and most public officials have • had no formal or agreed upon way of determining or responding to public opinion. 4. May be based on: Facts about problems and solutions Emotions and crises Beliefs people adopt through process of political socialization

8. What is public opinion? • 5. Role of Elites: • ·Shape mass views by influencing what issues • capture the public attention and how those issues • are debated and decided. • ·State the norms by which issues should be settled • ·Set range of acceptable and unacceptable • 6. New class • · Sociologists & political scientists often claim that • there’s a new class of people who benefit from the • power, resources, and growth of government. • · Constitute new elite that are wealthy because of • their connections with government, not business, • as elites previously were.

9. Characteristics of Public Opinion Latency: an opinion is held but not expressed • Saliency: degree to which it is important to a particular person or group. • 1. Social security high saliency with senior • citizens, lower for younger voters.

10. Characteristics of Public Opinion ·Intensity: how strongly people feel on a certain issue 1. NRA represents a minority position. However, intensity of their opposition to gun control is high. Many members determine who they’ll vote for in part due to a candidate’s position on gun control. This has made them one of America’s most powerful lobbying organizations. ·Stability: How little, or how much, public opinion changes over time

11. Political socialization • Process through which a person acquires knowledge, a set of political attitudes and orientations, and forms values and opinions about the political system and other social issues.

12. Agents of Socialization U.S. is one of the world’s most diverse countries, this makes it especially complex. Public opinion often skewed to a particular point of view (most in U.S. favor a capitalist economic system) Other public opinion can be almost equally divided between two extreme positions, generally little middle ground on these issues (Pro-life vs. pro- choice)

13. Family • Single most important socializing agent for most Americans • At home, kids learn basic attitudes toward authority, property, & rules of behavior · Most students see their views as being independent of their parents. In reality, there is still more political agreement between family generations

14. How Americans Learn About Politics: Political Socialization

15. School and Peers ·Governments use schools in their attempt to instill a commitment to the basic values of the system. • Schools give children formal knowledge they will need to be good citizens · Schools are also centers of informal learning about other groups in society.

16. Benevolent Leader • Political socialization phenomenon where children learn that political figures of the U.S. are well-meaning, honest, and trustworthy early in their childhood. • Children’s stories of George Washington and • Abraham Lincoln

17. Mass Media ·Referred to as “the new parent” 1. T.V. displaces parents as main source of information as kids get older 2. T.V. most common source of political information

18. Mass Media ·Selective perception: notion that people tend to see only what they want to see · Selective retention: idea that people • remember what they agree with

19. Social GroupsPolitical efficacy is the feeling that: ·one can understand government and effectively participate in it · government will respond to citizens’ demands · dependent on the factors below 1. more important seems to be education: the higher the education, the higher the efficacy.

20. Effects of Diversity • Demographic patterns determined every ten years • when the census is conducted

21. Religion • ·Generally Jews more liberal than Catholics, • who are more liberal than Protestants • ·Jews and Black Protestants tend to be the • most liberal • ·White Protestants tend to be more conservative • (especially in the south) • ·Many agree with separation of church and state

22. Ethnicity • ·Blacks tend to be more liberal • ·Asians and Hispanics are a little less liberal • ·Blacks and Asians are more likely to vote than whites of their same income level • ·Cubans tend to be more conservative Many immigrants arrive from all over the world each year (government allows 630,000 new legal immigrants per year)

23. Ethnicity • The Immigrant Society • United States is a nation of immigrants. • Three waves of immigration: • Northwestern Europeans (prior to late 19th Century) • Southern and eastern Europeans (late 19th and early 20th centuries) • Hispanics and Asians (late 20th century)

24. Ethnicity • The American Melting Pot • Melting Pot: the mixing of cultures, ideas, and peoples that has changed the American nation • Minority Majority: the emergence of a non-Caucasian majority • Political culture is an overall set of values widely shared within a society.

25. The American People

26. Gender • ·Women favor government programs promoting • equality more than men. • ·More likely to support government social • welfare programs, less likely to support increases in military spending • ·No set gender generalizations, differences • between men/women typically issue specific.

27. Age • ·Younger people typically vote less, not really • involved in/knowledgeable about politics. • ·Senior citizens population growing tend to be • vocal and lobby for particular issues • 1.Social Security System is second only to • national defense as America’s most costly • public policy.

28. Age • The Graying of America • Fastest growing age group is over 65 • Potential drain on Social Security • Pay as you go system • In 1942, 42 workers per retiree • In 2040, 2 workers per retiree

29. Age • Political Learning Over a Lifetime • Aging increases political participation and strength of party attachment.

30. Region • ·Mountain states and Midwest generally more conservative • ·Eastern and Western states typically more liberal • ·Southerners generally more conservative (because of civil rights issues)

31. Region • The Regional Shift • Population shift from east to west • Reapportionment: the process of reallocating seats in the House of Representatives every 10 years on the basis of the results of the census

32. Education • ·In general, the higher the level of education attained, the higher one’s awareness and understanding of politics and political issues • ·More education an individual receives, the more likely that person is to hold liberal political positions • ·More education = more likely to vote, more tolerant of opposing opinions

33. Income • ·Divides people on their opinions: higher income, more likely to value freedom and less government control • ·Higher income often more supportive of liberal goals like racial & sexual equality • ·Poor white voters LEAST likely to vote in a typical election

34. Personal Beliefs • ·Americans more “me-oriented” than ever ·Agree with things that benefit us, disagree with those that don’t ·When policies don’t affect us personally, hard for us to form an opinion

35. Political Knowledge • ·Everyone has “opinions” on politics, most people, however don’t know any “facts” 1. Speaker of the House 2. Chief Justice of the Supreme Court 3. Where other countries are located (Iraq, China, El Salvador)

36. Measuring Public Opinion and Political Information

37. Cues From Leaders • ·With lack of knowledge public opinion can be highly changeable at times 1. Rapid shifts are common when the public doesn’t have much information or when the information that they have is bad.

38. Measuring Public Opinion and Political Information

39. Public Opinion Polls Can be measured in different ways and the accuracy of the opinion depends on the measurement Public opinion is measured regularly through elections. Only measures it indirectly since voters are not always for, but sometimes against a candidate.

40. Public Opinion Polls • 4 out of 5 doctors surveyed recommend Product X. • If the election were held tomorrow, 43% of likely voters would vote for Roberta Jones. • 85% of all Americans prefer Brand Q over Brand Y. • 66% of parents surveyed think their children watch too much television. Where might you here or read a quote like this? What types of groups would be interested in information like this? What are some different ways groups could use this information? How might you be influenced if you read this quote?

41. Public Opinion Polls Modern-day polling tends to be moderately accurate “John Q. Public” thought to be the average man or woman on the streets. Term used by the media and pollsters when making blanket statements about the general opinion in the U.S.

42. Random/Representative Sample Polls • ·Everyone in the target population has an equal probability of being selected • ·Questions used are non-biased & do not give respondents any clues about what answers poll is looking for. • · Many polls conducted through telephone and • computer surveys

43. Telephone Polling Cluster sampling: groups drawn by geographical divisions (counties, districts) • Random digit dialing: people over eighteen with • birthdays in a certain month are asked to complete • a questionnaire

44. Telephone Polling ·Quota sample: less reliable polling method in which members of a particular group are interviewed in proportion to the group’s percentage of the population as a whole. • ·More costly than nonrandom polls, but results are • more reliable ·Apply a sampling error (typically about +/- 3 points) • 1. Poll results give candidate 45% of vote. Actual • results could be 42 or 48%

45. Telephone PollingQuota sample (continued) ·Assuming the U.S. adult population is targeted group, sample size usually between 1,200 and 1,500 respondents • 1. As polling techniques become more advanced, • typical sample sizes decreasing ·Apply a sampling error (typically about +/- 3 points) • 1. Poll results give candidate 45% of vote. Actual • results could be 42 or 48%

46. Nonrandom Polls Not reliable representations of people’s true opinions. However: • Straw polls: unscientific attempts to measure public opinion. Often used by print and television news media, internet, even members of Congress. • 1. Results not reliable because there is no guarantee that the group or sample answering question is representative of whole population.

47. Nonrandom Polls Not reliable representations of people’s true opinions. However: • ·Many candidates rely on nonrandom polls quickly • conducted by their party. • ·Members of Congress often rely on letters, phone • calls, e-mails to indicate public opinion on some • issues. 1. Only represents views of people motivated enough to contact legislators.

48. Nonrandom Polls Way questions are worded can significantly influence reflected opinions. • 1.“Slanting” questions to get the answers they • want.

49. Political PollsPush Polls ·Attempt to lead subject to a specified conclusion ·Some designed to ‘push’ subjects away from candidates by linking them to negative events or traits in the question

50. Political PollsTracking Polls ·Continuous surveys that enable candidates and politicians to chart daily rise and fall in popularity ·Small samples • ·Reliability problems but may be a decent measure • of trends