Public Opinion Poll (public + opinion_poll)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


Public Opinion Polls, Voter Turnout, and Welfare: An Experimental Study

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF POLITICAL SCIENCE, Issue 3 2010
Jens Großer
We experimentally study the impact of public opinion poll releases on voter turnout and welfare in a participation game. We find higher overall turnout rates when polls inform the electorate about the levels of support for the candidates than when polls are prohibited. Distinguishing between allied and floating voters, our data show that this increase in turnout is entirely due to floating voters. When polls indicate equal levels of support for the candidates, turnout is high and welfare is low (compared to the situation without polls). In contrast, when polls reveal more unequal levels of support, turnout is lower with than without this information, while the effect of polls on welfare is nonnegative. Finally, many of our results are well predicted by quantal response (logit) equilibrium. [source]


The Impact of Public School Attributes on Home Sale Prices in California

GROWTH AND CHANGE, Issue 3 2000
David E. Clark
The quality of public schools is often cited as an important attribute which distinguishes a community. Indeed, a recent public opinion poll conducted by the California Public Education Partnership indicates that residents rank improvements in public education higher than such high profile issues as environmental quality and crime reduction. In order to explore the role of educational quality in determining residential property values, a hedonic housing price model is used on a large sample of homes which sold within Fresno County in California over the period 1990-1994. After controlling for a wide range of housing characteristics and neighborhood features, the findings indicate that the school district does significantly influence the real sale price. Then the relative importance of inputs into the production of educational services is investigated as compared to output measures of productivity. These findings suggest that both input and output measures are important. However, elasticity estimates of input measures tend to be higher than those of output measures, with the average class size by far the strongest influence. There is some evidence to suggest that the benefits of additional teachers likely outweigh the costs. Finally, the findings suggest that attributes of schools are more highly valued by local residents than either crime or environmental quality measures within the community. [source]


Accurate forecasting of the undecided population in a public opinion poll

JOURNAL OF FORECASTING, Issue 6 2002
Christopher Monterola
Abstract The problem of pollsters is addressed which is to forecast accurately the final answers of the undecided respondents to the primary question in a public opinion poll. The task is viewed as a pattern-recognition problem of correlating the answers of the respondents to the peripheral questions in the survey with their primary answers. The underlying pattern is determined with a supervised artificial neural network that is trained using the peripheral answers of the decided respondents whose primary answers are also known. With peripheral answers as inputs, the trained network outputs the most probable primary response of an undecided respondent. For a poll conducted to determine the approval rating of the (former) Philippine president, J. E. Estrada in December 1999 and March 2000, the trained network predicted with a 95% success rate the direct responses of a test population that consists of 24.57% of the decided population who were excluded in the network training set. For the undecided population (22.67% of December respondents; 23.67% of March respondents), the network predicted a final response distribution that is consistent with the approval/disapproval ratio of the decided population. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


Using Affective Attitudes to Identify Christian Fundamentalism: The Ten Commandments Judge and Alabama Politics

POLITICS & POLICY, Issue 5 2010
THOMAS SHAW
This article develops a new and useful indicator to aid in identifying Christian fundamentalism. "Affect" measures individuals' affective attitudes toward the role of Christian fundamentalists in Alabama politics. We demonstrate the analytic utility of this indicator by quantitatively comparing it to other more traditional and direct measures of fundamentalism, such as belief in the Bible as the literal word of God, self-identification as a fundamentalist, and whether one considers oneself to be "born again." We then compare the utility of these different measures of Christian fundamentalism in explaining electoral support for the archetype Christian fundamentalist political candidate, the "Ten Commandments Judge" Roy Moore, former chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court. We find that our affect indicator compares well to other measures of fundamentalism and actually outperforms all of the more traditional measures in explaining support for Moore. Data used in the analysis come from a public opinion poll conducted by the USA Polling Group in April 2006. Este artículo desarrolla un nuevo y útil indicador para ayudar a identificar el fundamentalismo cristiano. "Afecto" mide las actitudes afectivas de los individuos hacia el rol de los cristianos fundamentalistas en la política de Alabama. Demostramos la utilidad analítica de este indicador al compararlo cuantitativamente con otras medidas más tradicionales y directas del fundamentalismo, tales como la creencia de la Biblia como la palabra literal de Dios, auto-identificación como fundamentalista, y si uno se considera a uno mismo "nacido de nuevo." Después comparamos la utilidad de estas diferentes medidas del fundamentalismo cristiano para explicar el apoyo electoral al candidato político cristiano fundamentalista arquetípico: Roy Moore, "Juez de los Diez Mandamientos," ex-presidente del tribunal de la Corte Suprema de Alabama. Encontramos que nuestro indicador Afecto se equipara con otras medidas del fundamentalismo y en realidad supera a todas las más tradicionales mediciones que explican el apoyo a Moore. La información utilizada en el análisis proviene de una encuesta de opinión pública realizada por el USA Polling Group en Abril del 2006. [source]


Who Speaks for the People?

PRESIDENTIAL STUDIES QUARTERLY, Issue 4 2008
Public Opinion in the United States, The President, the Press
The U.S. president, the media, and public opinion survey data all represent the American public: the U.S. president serves as the personification and symbol of the U.S. government to the press and people alike; the news and opinion publicized in the media constitute the public sphere; and public opinion polls are accepted as indicators of the public's opinions and beliefs. This article uses both existing research findings and new data to unpack the relationship between the three institutions so as to determine under which conditions each institution speaks for the public and under which it dominates or is subordinate to the others. [source]


Representative marketing-oriented study on implants in the Austrian population.

CLINICAL ORAL IMPLANTS RESEARCH, Issue 5 2003

Abstract: Oral implantology is an established subspecialty of restorative dental and oral surgery. While an extensive body of evidence on the fundamentals of osseointegration and associated factors has been published, marketing-oriented analyses based on representative public opinion polls of implant acceptance, patient-perceived cost and patient satisfaction are scarce. In this study, an attempt was made to address these points by questioning a representative sample of 1000 adults in the household setting. The interviewees were presented with 14 questions. Of those familiar with implants as one of the treatment alternatives, 61% reported they would accept implants if the need arose. Implant acceptance was highest among males and interviewees below the age of 30 years. The interest in implants increased with increasing family incomes. Four percent of those questioned already had implants. Twenty-five percent knew someone who had undergone implant treatment. All those questioned found implant-supported rehabilitation to be very expensive. Many of them blamed the dentists for the high cost. One detail was particularly evident: satisfaction among implanted patients was clearly higher than satisfaction rates perceived by them from what they were told about implants by others. First-hand experiences with implants proved to be less biased than reported second-hand information. Résumé L'implantologie buccale est une technique appliquée dans certaines spécialités de médecine dentaire. Tandis que la proportion d'évidences s'accroît en ce qui concerne la recherche sur l'ostéoïntégration et les facteurs associés, les analyses orientées sur le marketing et l'opinion du public sur l'acceptation de l'implant, le prix et la satisfaction se font rares. Cette étude a été réalisée pour analyser ces différents points via un échantillon de 1 000 adultes. Les interviewés ont répondu à quatorze questions. De ceux qui étaient familiers à l'idée que les implants pouvaient être une alternative au traitement, 61 % ont répondu qu'ils pourraient si nécessaire y recourir. L'acceptation de l'implant était plus importante chez les hommes et les personnes âgées de moins de trente ans. L'intérêt à propos des implants augmentait parallèlement aux revenus de la famille. Quatre pour cent des personnes étaient déjà porteurs d'implants. Vingt-cinq pour cent connaîssaient une personne ayant subi un traitement d'implant buccal. Parmi toutes les personnes interrogées, la réhabilitation sur implants semblait trop chère. Beaucoup d'entre-eux rejetaient la responsabilité des prix trop élevés sur les dentistes. Un détail était particulièrement évident : la satisfaction parmi les patients possèdant des implants était clairement plus importante que le taux de satisfaction perçu par ceux n'en portant pas mais ayant reçu l'information par d'autres personnes. L'expérience personnelle était moins déformée que celle obtenue de manière indirecte. Zusammenfassung Die orale Implantologie ist eine etablierte Subspezialität der restaurativen Zahnmedizin und der Oralchirurgie. Während extensive Evidenz über die Grundlagen der Osseointegration und der assoziierten Faktoren publiziert worden ist, sind marketing-orientierte Analysen basierend auf repräsentativen Meinungsumfragen über die Akzeptanz von Implantaten, über die von Patienten empfundenen Kosten und über die Patientenzufriedenheit rar. In dieser Studie wird der Versuch unternommen, diese Punkte mit Hilfe einer Befragung einer repräsentativen Gruppe von 1000 Erwachsenen anzusprechen. Den Befragten wurden 14 Fragen gestellt. Von denen, welche über Implantate als Behandlungsalternative Bescheid wussten, gaben 61% an, sie würden Implantate bei sich akzeptieren, falls die Notwendigkeit dafür besteht. Die Akzeptanz von Implantaten war bei Männern und Befragten unter 30 Jahren am grössten. Das Interesse an Implantaten nahm mit zunehmendem Familieneinkommen zu. Vier Prozent der Befragten hatten bereits Implantate. Fünfundzwanzig Prozent kannten jemanden, der sich einer Implantation unterzogen hat. Alle Befragten empfanden Implantatversorgungen zu kostspielig. Viele davon fanden, der Zahnarzt sei schuld an den hohen Kosten. Ein Detail war von besonderem Interesse: Die Zufriedenheit bei mit Implantaten versorgten Patienten war deutlich grösser als die von anderen Leuten empfundene Zufriedenheit, welche über Implantatversorgung von anderen gehört haben. Erfahrungen mit Implantaten aus erster Hand waren mit weniger Vorurteilen behaftet als Informationen aus zweiter Hand, über die berichtet wurde. Resumen La implantología oral es una subespecialidad establecida de restauración dental y cirugía oral. Mientras que se ha publicado una gran cantidad de evidencias sobre los fundamentos de la osteointegración y factores asociados, los análisis orientados al marketing basados en encuestas representativas de la opinión pública sobre aceptación de los implantes, costo percibido por el paciente y satisfacción del paciente son escasos. En este estudio se hizo un intento de dirigir estos puntos encuestando una muestra representativa de 1000 adultos en su hogar. A los entrevistados se les presentaron 14 preguntas. De aquellos familiarizados con los implantes como una de las alternativas de tratamiento, el 61% respondió que aceptarían los implantes llegada la necesidad. La aceptación de los implantes fue mayor en varones y entrevistados menores de 30 años. El interés en los implantes creció con ingresos familiares crecientes. El 4% de los encuestados ya tenían implantes. El 25% conocía a alguien que se había sometido a tratamiento de implantes. Todos los encuestados encontraron la rehabilitación con implantes demasiado cara. Muchos de ellos culparon a los dentistas del alto costo. Un detalle fue particularmente evidente: La satisfacción entre los pacientes implantados fue claramente mas alta que los índices de satisfacción percibidos por ellos de lo que se les dijo sobre los implantes por otros. Las experiencias de primera mano con implantes demostraron ser menos viciadas que las informaciones reportadas de segunda mano. [source]