POLS 115 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Literacy Test, Limited Government, Sound Bite
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Income/ses (socio-economic status-social class: parents/family (most important, education/school, peers (note: conformity- (cid:862) pi(cid:396)al of ile(cid:374)(cid:272)e(cid:863)(cid:895, media, region (political culture, race/ethnicity, religion, ge(cid:374)de(cid:396) (cid:894)(cid:862)ge(cid:374)de(cid:396) gap(cid:863)(cid:895, age (life events, life cycle effects, cohort effects, political leaders. What things form opinion or knowledge: self-interest (salience and intensity, political information/knowledge. Ideology- set of beliefs to guide the processing of information. Generally, americans lack knowledge of specific political issues. Key points in understanding public opinions: opinions change overtime, changes over what is going on in the world. Boundaries on public policy: problem for the media, researchers, politicians. 1936: literary digest poll: (cid:862)ma(cid:374) i(cid:374) t(cid:396)eet(cid:863) Modern polling relies on: random sampling-a(cid:448)oids (cid:862)sa(cid:373)ple e(cid:396)(cid:396)o(cid:396)(cid:863) Note: a poll of 600 can give a good representation of opinion in the united states: unbiased questions (cid:894)a(cid:448)oid (cid:862)leadi(cid:374)g (cid:395)uestio(cid:374)s(cid:863)(cid:895, good theory. Response rate in phone surveys in 2012: 9: (cid:862)push polli(cid:374)g(cid:863)/fake polls. People (cid:449)illi(cid:374)g to gi(cid:448)e opi(cid:374)io(cid:374)s o(cid:374) (cid:449)hat the(cid:455) do(cid:374)"t k(cid:374)o(cid:449) (cid:373)u(cid:272)h a(cid:271)out (cid:862)so(cid:272)iall(cid:455) a(cid:272)(cid:272)epta(cid:271)le a(cid:374)s(cid:449)e(cid:396)s(cid:863)
