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10.6: Student Resources

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    Key Terms/Glossary

    • Afrobarometer - a public opinion survey focused on surveying people in countries across the African continent.
    • Agents of socialization - different factors that have helped mold who we are today, and our political views.
    • AmericasBarometer (LAPOP) - a public opinion organization focused on surveying people in countries across North, Central, South American and Caribbean regions.
    • Arab Barometer - a public opinion survey focused on surveying people in countries across the Middle East and North Africa.
    • Asian Barometer - a public opinion survey focused on surveying people in countries across the Asian continent.
    • Barometer - another, more general term, for a survey.
    • Comparative National Elections Project (CNEP) - a partnership of scholars who conduct election surveys on five continents.
    • Comparative public opinion - the research and analysis of public opinion across two more countries.
    • Eurasia Barometer - a public opinion survey focused on surveying people in countries across eastern Europe and Central Asia.
    • Focus group - a small subset of individuals that are exposed to a treatment of some kind and then are asked about their impressions of that treatment.
    • Framing effects - an effect that could influence a respondent’s answer by how the question is presented.
    • Latino Barometer - a public opinion survey focused on surveying people in Latin American countries.
    • Margin of error - a statistical estimation of the accuracy of one’s sample.
    • Priming effects - questions that have a respondent thinking about a certain subject matter they may have not been normally thinking about or thinking about at that time.
    • Public opinion poll - a random sample of subjects from a broader pool of citizens who are interviewed and whose answers are used to make inferences on that larger body.
    • Public opinion - the views and opinions of the public at large.
    • Representative sample - a sample that has all the same features and elements at the same proportions of the larger body.
    • Survey - a set of questions that asks individuals, known as respondents, to share their beliefs, attitudes, and views on policy and political issues or individuals.
    • Survey questions - included in surveys and consist of questions with multiple choice, true/false, and open-ended response options.
    • World Values Survey (WVS) - an international research program devoted to the scientific and academic study of social, political, economic, religious and cultural values of people in the world.

    Summary

    Section #10.1: What is Comparative Public Opinion?

    Public opinion is the views and opinions of the public at large, while comparative public opinion is the research and analysis of public opinion across two more countries or global regions. Public opinion is of interest to scholars and the general public because it helps inform our understanding of the beliefs, attitudes, and views of individuals across countries or regions.

    Section #10.2: Public Opinion and Political Socialization

    Political scientists use public opinion data to study a variety of different research questions. The foundations of public opinion can be seen in how we are socialized. There are different factors, or agents, that impact our views and begin in early childhood. Family, education, and religion are some of the more dominant factors, but other agents can also influence us extensively. Once our views are established, they still can continue to change, but out of these views we derive our political ideology and our belief in the appropriate role and purpose government plays in our lives.

    Section #10.3: Measuring Public Opinion

    The most common way to measure public opinion is through public opinion polls. If the goal of the poll is to make generalizations of a larger population of people, the sample must be representative of that larger body, and subjects chosen to be interviewed must be selected randomly. There are different types of polling techniques, which allow researchers to measure public opinion in a variety of ways. All polling has potential problems, many of which can be mitigated to some extent, but researchers need to always be conscious of these problems’ potential influence. Nevertheless, when done correctly, public opinion polls are a valuable tool for researchers and marketers.

    Section #10.4: Comparative Case Study - Barometers Around the World

    There are at least 8 barometers, or surveys, conducted throughout the world: Afrobarometer, Arab Barometer, Asian Barometer, Eurasia Barometer, Latino Barometer, Comparative National Elections Project, AmericasBarometer, and World Values Survey. Most barometers have questionnaires with a common, or core, set of questions that are asked in each fielding of the survey. All barometers are developed and administered by social scientists located throughout the world.

    Review Questions

    1. What is comparative public opinion?
      1. is the research and analysis of public opinion across two or more countries.
      2. is the research and analysis of public opinion across two or more continents.
      3. is the research and analysis of elite opinion across two or more countries.
      4. is the research and analysis of elite opinion across two or more continents.
    2. Which of the following best describes political socialization?
      1. Where someone chooses to get their political information.
      2. How someone is raised and views the world from an ideological point of view.
      3. Why does someone choose whether or not to vote?
      4. What political organization someone chooses to work or volunteer with.
    3. Which of the following is NOT a challenge of measuring public opinion?
      1. Bandwagon effects
      2. Framing
      3. Priming
      4. Education
    4. What is the mission of the World Association for Public Opinion Research (WAPOR)?
      1. promotes the highest professional standards, ethics and techniques for polling around the world.
      2. international membership represents the industry’s most respected names in the survey and public opinion research field.
      3. Through publications, seminars, meetings and educational initiatives we engage in a rich ongoing conversation about how best to collect data and maintain data quality not just in advanced democracies, but also in emerging democracies.
      4. All of the above.
    5. Which of the following is not a public opinion barometer?
      1. Afrobarometer
      2. Arab Barometer
      3. Meximeter
      4. Latino Barometer

    Answers: 1.a, 2.b, 3.d, 4.d, 5.c

    Critical Thinking Questions

    1. In September 2020, WAPOR hosted a webinar on Advances in Comparative Survey Methods and discussed the continuing development of Multinational, Multiregional, and Multicultural (3MC) survey research methodology. Watch the webinar and write in 5 or more sentences what you found most interesting and/or most perplexing?
    2. Given the problems with polling, should we just stop polling individuals and trying to measure public opinion? Why or why not?
    3. Select a barometer you are most interested in, and if available, review its questionnaire. Within the questionnaire, identify at least two questions and compare and contrast them for similarities and differences.

    Suggestions for Further Study

    Books or Book Chapters

    • Aalberg, Toril. 2003. Achieving Justice: Comparative Public Opinions on Income Distribution. BRILL.
    • Dalton, Russell J. 2018. Citizen Politics: Public Opinion and Political Parties in Advanced Industrial Democracies. CQ Press.
    • Norris, Pippa. The Globalization of Comparative Public Opinion Research. The Sage Handbook of Comparative Politics. Ed. Neil Robinson and Todd Landman. Sage, 2009, 522-540.

    This page titled 10.6: Student Resources is shared under a CC BY-NC 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Dino Bozonelos, Julia Wendt, Charlotte Lee, Jessica Scarffe, Masahiro Omae, Josh Franco, Byran Martin, & Stefan Veldhuis (ASCCC Open Educational Resources Initiative (OERI)) .