The Effect of Respondent Ignorance on Survey Results
- 1 December 1956
- journal article
- research article
- Published by JSTOR in Journal of the American Statistical Association
- Vol. 51 (276) , 576
- https://doi.org/10.2307/2281469
Abstract
On numerous economic and social issues, opinions of the informed segment of a population may differ substantially from those of the uninformed, to judge by results obtained from an experimental “public opinion survey.” Moreover the mere fact that a person is not informed about an issue does not deter him, as a rule, from offering an opinion when asked. Highly significant with respect to the validity of public opinion polls may be the marked tendency for those not informed about an issue (at times more than half of those interviewed) to lean toward a neutral position and for the misinformed to differ substantially in their opinions from the minority who were informed.Keywords
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