chapter 5- POL 202
what percentage of the general public is made up of faith and flag conservatives?
10 percent
which statement about congressional job approval is accurate?
Americans' attitudes toward Congress are often informed by partisanship.
Who was the first president to use a private polling firm?
Franklin Roosevelt
At 11 p.m., what announcement did NBC make regarding the election?
George W. Bush was declared the winner of Florida and the next U.S. president.
which of the following is true of democratic mainstays?
Democratic Mainstays represent the largest percentage of the general public.
Which of the following is TRUE of political socialization?
It starts during childhood and persists through adulthood.
What was the main problem associated with the polling methods of the Literary Digest?
Its respondents were not randomly selected.
Which of the following resulted from the 1980 election between Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter?
Media outlets agreed to wait to call races until all polls on the West Coast had closed.
which statement regarding the different groups of Americans is the most accurate?
Republicans and Democrats are more conservative and more liberal, respectively, than the general public.
watch the video above, starting at the 7:20 mark. At the beginning of that clip, what announcement did NBC make about the projected winner of Florida?
The Florida race was declared too close to call.
what policy belief sets the progressive left apart from the other democratic leaning groups?
They are in favor of vastly increasing government services.
what characteristic distinguishes stressed sideliners from the other group?
They are the least engaged and have little interest in politics.
what happened to the approval rating of President George W. Bush?
They peaked in late 2001 and then generally declined.
which of the following best describes the beliefs of the Progressive Left?
They strongly support policies that address racial inequality.
compared to the other republican oriented typologies what is unique about the ambivalent right?
They support the legalization of marijuana and abortion.
what is one defining characteristic of faith and flag conservatives?
They tend to feel that the government should support religious ideals.
Most Americans hold which of the following views on the use of public opinion polls?
They think government leaders should pay attention to public opinion.
what accounts for the "honeymoon period" that most presidents enjoy?
a lack of a presidential record in office
Table 2 demonstrates that question wording can have what sort of impact on poll results?
a significant impact
In the end, what did Murray Edelman, the editorial director of VNS, believe the networks did not take into account?
absentee ballots
What did studies from the 1950s reveal about public opinion?
citizens possessed low levels of political knowledge
why was congress slow to respond to the federal bailout package in 2008?
constituent opposition
Public approval ratings of presidents tend to be which of the following?
cyclical
According to the AJR article, what are the three sources of data that VNS uses for its projections?
exit poll results, raw votes from sample precincts, and the actual vote total
which president had the highest approval rating at the midpoint of his first term?
george w. bush
which of the following would be considered a shortcut in making voting decisons?
identifying with a party
which of the following is correlated with increasingly consistent ideological thinking?
increased education
Who believed that the best form of government is one that is only INDIRECTLY influenced by public opinion?
james madison
Which of the following is crucial for proper public opinion studies?
scientific measurement
Which of the following groups is more likely to identify with conservatives positions?
senior citizens
A margin of error of +/- 5 in an exit poll would indicate which of the following?
that the actual percentage could differ from the poll's prediction by 5 percentage points
what does the above excerpt reveal about the political landscape in 2021?
that there are deep divisions both between the two parties and within their respective coalitions
The stock market collapse of September 2008 and subsequent events provide an example of which of the following?
the complicated relationship between members of Congress and the public
Which of the following tend to be the most liberal in regard to social issues such as abortion and some-sex marriage?
the religiously unaffiliated
what of the following factors (among others) might account for the results of many public opinion surveys?
timing and context of the studies
What is the most effective way to ensure that a study reflects the opinions of the general population?
use random sampling
Based on the list above, Which of the following questions would be the LEAST helpful to ask when evaluating the trustworthiness of polling information?
who asked the questions?
According to Mark Blumenthal, how should exit polls be used?
Exit polls should be used to understand voter behavior, not to predict election outcomes.
Why was Warren Mitofsky willing to project a winner for the Florida election before 8 p.m.?
Because his data showed that the actual votes for Gore were even better than exit poll numbers, he believed exit polls had been overstating Bush's numbers.
Why do exit polls get so much attention on election night, according to the article?
Before the actual votes are counted, exit polls fill an information vacuum at the moment when people most want to know election results.
what do the populist right and the ambivalent right have in common?
Both groups support increasing taxes on high-earning households.
According to the article from The Atlantic, what happened with the early exit pol results in Wisconsin?
Early exit poll results were leaked to the media and led people to believe that the race was much closer than it turned out to be.
what is one difference between democratic mainstays and establishment liberals?
Establishment Liberals tend to support more liberal policies, whereas Democratic Mainstays are more moderate.
Which of the following problems existed in BOTH the 2000 presidential election and the 2012 Wisconsin recall election?
Exit poll data was used to incorrectly predict the election outcome.
According to the article, what was the exit poll data showing at 7:45pm on election night, and how did that compare to the model prediction that included sample precinct votes?
Exit poll results showed a 6.6 percent lead for Gore, while the model predicted a 5.4 percent lead for Gore.
which of the following offers a reason why government leaders SHOULD pay attention to public opinion?
People lose trust in government when their leaders fail to adequately represent public opinion.
what is political typology?
Political typology categorizes groups of people based on their attitudes and values.
which of the following offers a reason why government leaders SHOULD NOT pay attention to public opinion?
Polling organizations do not always conduct meaningful surveys.
Approximately what percentage of young voters identify with the same political party as their parents?
over 50 percent
what is attitude consistency?
political opinions founded on a set of principles about the function of government