Chapter 7: Public Opinion

24. The Republican Party could attract more female supporters if it __________.

a. changed its position on reproductive rights

27. Suppose two surveys are conducted, one asking people's level of support for "welfare" and the other using the term "assistance to the poor." The former survey finds much lower support than the latter. This discrepancy shows that __________.

d. pollsters must be careful to word questions in ways that avoid biased responses

11. The fact that most Americans turned against the Iraq War after learning that Saddam Hussein did not have weapons of mass destruction (WMD) illustrates __________.

d. the limitations on government's ability to create the public opinion it desires

18. The 2008 U.S. financial bailouts were met with public opposition despite the fact that they staved off a depression and were being repaid. This illustrates that __________.

d. the public is often swayed by emotional rather than rational considerations

39. How do published exit polls affect the outcome of presidential elections in the United States?

a. They have not been shown to have any impact.

37. Poor poll showings early in the campaign __________.

a. are often a self-fulfilling prophecy of defeat

14. In recent decades, women were several percentage points more likely than men to vote for a __________ presidential candidate.

a. Democratic

2. What is the most significant way in which television coverage turned public opinion in favor of the Civil Rights Act of 1965?

a. Images of police brutality toward African Americans sparked widespread outrage.

10. Why might a government go ahead with a policy or action that the majority of citizens oppose?

a. Public opinion does not always reflect what is best for the nation.

32. A pollster can decrease a poll's margin of error by __________.

a. increasing the sample size

31. Which pair of independent and dependent variables cannot reasonably be reversed?

a. race (independent) and annual income (dependent)

36. Which of these statements is true regarding a president's approval ratings?

d. Presidents experience their highest ratings during their honeymoon phase.

1. Which statement explains why public opinion is an important consideration for both democratic and authoritarian governments?

d. Strong public dissent can lead to an electoral defeat or the collapse of the regime.

23. One challenge of __________ approach is that many Americans tend to identify as middle class, even if they are too poor or too rich to qualify.

d. a subjective

29. Which of the following is most likely to result in a pollster recording a non-attitude response for a participant?

d. asking the participant his opinion on an especially complex issue

40. Politicians with an early lead in the polls tend to get _________.

d. more campaign contributions and more press coverage

38. Which of these is an example of a rally event?

a. a major terrorist attack

5. Elections rarely show __________.

a. how voters feel about specific issues

25. Which type of distribution curve is the most dangerous for a democracy?

b. bimodal

17. A well-constructed public opinion poll __________.

b. separates conservative from liberal opinions

6. Which statement can explain why a public opinion poll taken in 2006 found that large numbers of Americans still believed Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and significant links to Al Qaeda?

b. People often hold onto impressions even after the facts have been shown to them.

15. Which of these statements about the role of race and ethnicity in politics is the most accurate?

b. Politics based on ethnicity have the potential to be fluid and change over time.

8. Which factor contributed most to the collapse of regimes such as those in the Soviet Unio

b. a lack of sustained public support

19. Based on opinion polls in other areas, one could conclude that an American with a college education is likely to support __________.

b. a reduction of welfare benefits

28. Which of these is the best strategy for policy makers to use to create better policy on a particular issue?

b. balance opinion polls with their own knowledge on the issue

26. Published surveys tend to be more carefully watched by the public during __________.

b. election years

3. What does public opinion polling provide that election results cannot?

b. insight into citizens' views on specific issues

34. Polls can track public opinion and __________.

b. shape public opinion

33. Which statement explains how Nate Silver was able to predict an Obama win in 2012 more confidently than many pollsters?

c. He polled a more representative sample of voters than other pollsters did.

30. Which of the following is a reason that the telephone survey is the most common polling method in the United States?

c. Other forms of polling are impractical or prohibitively expensive.

7. Mahatma Gandhi's movement in India illustrated that __________.

c. a government responds to public opinion when its image is threatened

12. After interviewing a citizen about his support for the new health care bill, a newspaper concludes that there is widespread support for the new legislation in town. This is an example of __________.

c. anecdotal evidence

13. Survey results show that __________ Americans tend to be more tolerant and more in favor of civil rights than the public as a whole.

c. college-educated

22. According to Almond, the elite might play to the attentive public because the attentive public tends to __________.

c. pass on views that mobilize the general public

4. A person's dedication to her organic vegetable garden would not be considered part of public opinion but her __________ would be.

c. views on food industry

21. In the United States, some affluent suburbs are quite liberal, while poorer country dwellers are conservative. What does this suggest about Karl Marx's theories on class consciousness?

d. His prediction regarding the salience of social class does not apply to the United States.

20. Which statement explains why the life cycle theory does not always hold true?

d. Major events during young adulthood can affect people's political views for a long time.

35. What can be concluded from the fact that such a large proportion of the American public identifies as conservative?

d. Many people have an ideological identification that goes against their position on the issues.

16. Which of the following lends support to the political generations theory of public opinion?

d. Many people who lived through the Great Depression are life-long supporters of welfare programs.

9. Which of the following is a plausible explanation for the polls' prediction that Dewey would defeat Truman in 1948?

d. Pollsters had assumed that respondents who said they were undecided would wind up voting in the same ratio as those who had already decided.