Despite their pervasiveness in American life, with subjects ranging from how citizens will vote in presidential elections to opinions about American Idol contestants, considerable misunderstanding exists about the conduct and interpretation of polls. Politicians, interest groups, political parties, advertisers, media outlets, and academics alike point to what the public has expressed through any number of public opinion polls to bolster their positions and arguments. Given the ever-increasing prevalence and frequent misinterpretation of polls, students need to become better consumers of poll results.

This updated seventh edition builds on a proven framework, closely examining structural aspects of polls, methodological procedures, and the function of polls in electoral politics. New material examines a number of methodological areas including possible meanings of the “don't know” or middle response, more detailed coverage of sampling and response rates, consideration of nonattitudes, and greater discussion of reliability, validity and index construction. End-of-chapter exercises further the book’s goal of educating individuals to become savvy to the use and misuse of polls.

Preface

1. Polling and the Public

2. The Problem of Nonattitudes

3. Wording and Context of Questions

4. Sampling Techniques

5. Interviewing and Data Collection Procedures

6. The Media and the Polls

7. Polls and Elections

8. Analyzing and Interpreting Polls

9. Polling and Democracy

Web Sites

References

Index

"The core strength of this seventh edition of Polling and the Public is that Asher presents a dry topic in research methods in a very straightforward and non-threatening manner to a wide audience of individuals with little or no knowledge about public opinion polls. My students find the book to be very readable and the many examples in this book help to clarify the core lessons that are presented in each chapter. Asher does a good job of covering a variety of important topics related to survey analysis for an undergraduate audience."

"I think that Herbert Asher’s Polling and the Public, 7th edition is an excellent introductory book. It has the right mix of real world examples and academic scholarship on public opinion. I particularly appreciate how it makes the issues involved in polling easily accessible and understandable for an undergraduate audience while still dealing with the methodological and normative issues at a sophisticated level. In trying to make the readers ‘more astute judges of polls,’ the book takes up both methodological and substantive issues in a fashion that has broad appeal and applicability. As a political communication scholar, I particularly appreciate the integration of a discussion of media coverage of polling (and its strengths and weaknesses) throughout the text."

“Asher's Polling and the Public is a perfect text for a course or unit on public opinion. The presentation is simple and engaging enough for first-year undergraduates, but there's also enough intellectual ‘meat’ here to make the book worthwhile for graduate students. The book features an excellent combination of normative and practical discussions. It provides by far the best discussion that I have seen of the vagaries, pitfalls, and technical dilemmas of survey research, and gives students an excellent sense of what constitutes a good and reliable survey. In addition, the book delves into broader questions about the strengths and limits of surveys as gauges of public opinion, and about the appropriate role for polling in a representative democracy. Students really enjoy the well-chosen political cartoons, which drive home many of the book's important points in a light but memorable way. Every time I use this text in class, I can't help but remark: ‘If every American read this little book, how much more enlightened our political discourse would be!’"

Herbert Asher is professor emeritus of political science at Ohio State University. He has written numerous articles and books on legislative politics, electoral politics, and political methodology, including American Labor Unions in the Electoral Arena, with Eric S. Heberlig, Randall B. Ripley, and Karen Snyder (2001); Presidential Elections and American Politics, Fifth Edition (1992); Theory-Building and Data Analysis in the Social Sciences, coedited with Herbert F. Weisberg, John H. Kessel, and W. Phillips Shively (1984); and Causal Modeling, revised edition (1983).