Understanding Public Opinion Polls

This book provides readers with a deeper understanding of practical and theoretical aspects of opinion polls. There are good and bad polls. The book describes how to separate the chaff from the wheat. It should help non-survey experts, such as journalists, decision makers, political scientists, and politicians, determine the quality of a poll.

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Polls are conducted every day all around the world for almost everything (especially during elections). But not every poll is a good one. A lot depends on the type of questions asked, how they are asked and whether the sample used is truly representative. And these are not the only aspects of a poll that should be checked. So how does one separate the chaff from the wheat?

That’s where Understanding Public Opinion Polls comes in. Written by a well-known author with over thirty years of experience, the book is built around a checklist for polls that describes the various aspects of polls to pay attention to if one intends to use its results. By comprehensively answering the questions in the checklist, a good idea of the quality of the poll is obtained.

Features:






Provides readers with a deeper understanding of practical and theoretical aspects of opinion polls while assuming no background in mathematics or statistics



Shows how to determine if a poll is good or bad



Provides a historical perspective and includes examples from real polls



Gives special attention to online and election polls

The book gives an overview of many aspects of polls – questionnaire design, sample selection, estimation, margins of error, nonresponse and weighting. It is essential reading for those who want to gain a better understanding of the ins and outs of polling including those who are confronted with polls in their daily life or work or those who need to learn how to conduct their own polls.