1,030 research outputs found
Fictitious issues revisited: political knowledge, interest, and the generation of nonattitudes
No full textIt has long been suspected that, when asked to provide opinions on matters of public policy, significant numbers of those surveyed do so with only the vaguest understanding of the issues in question. In this article, we present the results of a study which demonstrates that a significant minority of the British public are, in fact, willing to provide evaluations of non-existent policy issues. In contrast to previous American research, which has found such responses to be most prevalent among the less educated, we find that the tendency to provide 'pseudo-opinions' is positively correlated with self-reported interest in politics. This effect is itself moderated by the context in which the political interest item is administered; when this question precedes the fictitious issue item, its effect is greater than when this order is reversed. Political knowledge, on the other hand, is associated with a lower probability of providing pseudo-opinions, though this effect is weaker than that observed for political interest. Our results support the view that responses to fictitious issue items are not generated at random, via some 'mental coin flip'. Instead, respondents actively seek out what they consider to be the likely meaning of the question and then respond in their own terms, through the filter of partisan loyalties and current political discourse
Assessing the validity of generalized trust questions: what kind of trust are we measuring?
No full textIn the social capital literature a distinction is made between trust expressed in people in general, and trust in people who are known to us personally. In this article we investigate the frames of reference respondents make use of when answering two commonly used interpersonal trust questions. Half of our sample was administered a version which asks respondents whether "most people" can be trusted. The other half of the sample was administered an alternative version of the question, in which the object of trust is restricted to "people in your local area." Immediately after answering the trust question all respondents were asked to report, in their own words, who came to mind when formulating their response. Counter to the widespread assumption that these questions measure generalized trust, we find that a substantial number of respondents report having thought about people who are known to them personally. Furthermore, respondents who report having thought about individuals who are known to them also report substantially higher levels of trust than people who say they thought about abstract categories such as "people in general." Our results suggest that apparent differences in trust across question formats and groups within the general public derive, at least in part, from heterogeneity in question interpretation
Middle alternatives revisited: How the neither/nor response acts as a way of saying ‘I don’t know’
No full textMiddle alternatives revisited: how the neither/nor response acts as a ‘face-saving’ way of saying ‘I don’t know’
No full textIn this paper, we use follow-up probes administered to respondents who initially select the mid-point to determine whether they selected this alternative in order to indicate opinion neutrality, or to indicate that they do not have an opinion on the issue. We find the vast majority of responses turn out to be what we term ‘face-saving don’t knows’ and that reallocating these responses from the mid-point to the don’t know category significantly alters descriptive and multivariate inferences. Our findings have important implications for the design and analysis of bipolar ratings scales.<br/
An experiment on the measurement of political knowledge in surveys
No full textIn a series of articles, Mondak and colleagues argue that the conventional way of measuring political knowledge in surveys is flawed. Personality related "propensity to guess" underestimates the level of political knowledge in the population and distorts estimates of between group differences, when a DK alternative is offered. This has led Mondak to recommend the use of closed-ended items on which DKs are not explicitly offered, following best practice in the field of educational testing. In this article, we present the results of an experimental study which calls into question the wisdom of this approach. Our results show little evidence of partial knowledge concealed within DK responses; when people who initially select a DK alternative are subsequently asked to provide a "best guess," they fare statistically no better than chance. We conclude that opinion researchers should be cautious about adopting Mondak's recommendations for the design of political knowledge items in surveys
A study of suitable methods for raising response rates in school surveys
No full textThere is evidence which suggests that surveys of school pupils in England have been in steady decline over recent years. It is not clear what underlies the apparent downward trend in school response rates, nor why, in the international studies, England has consistently experienced greater difficulty than the majority of its international partners in maintaining response rates and meeting the benchmark criteria.This study was commissioned in order to investigate the apparent downward trend in response rates and identify suitable methods for raising response rates in school surveys.The study had three main aims, one was an investigation of trends and causes of non-response to UK school surveys in general, the second was to focus specifically on the causes of non-response to the PISA survey in its most recent round, 2003, and the third aim was to make recommendations for improving response rates to school surveys in England in the future.This brief contains information on the key findings gathered from the study and the recommendations made.<br/
Smith-Patten_Patten_calculator_matrices
No full textCalculator used for pairwise Jaccard’s dissimilarity indices; resulting matrices for all tax
Lucy Woodruff Smith correspondence, 1917-1918
No full textLucy Woodruff Smith correspondence of 1917 and 1918. Includes letters from Lucy\u27s uncle, D. P. Woodruff at Weiser, Idaho; a postcard fro Ellen W. Libbey at Littleton, New Hampshire; and from "Martha" at Salt Lake Cit
- …
