Studies in Public Opinion

Opinion: Conducting science in the public eye

Doing science is usually hidden behinds the wall of the lab and universities, and thus immune from immediate public scrutiny. The current COVID-19 pandemic has dragged the scientific process and its fruits in the public eye. In this short piece, I attempt to discuss the effect of conducting science in the public eye on the public’s perception of science and scientists.

Democracy's Denominator: Reassessing Responsiveness with Public Opinion on the National Policy Agenda.

Democratic responsiveness concerns the degree to which government policies match public preferences. Responsiveness studies typically use national surveys to characterize public opinion, but whether poll questions overlap with the policy agenda is unknown. The first of two empirical analyses presented here, with hundreds of issues on the national agenda in the United States from 1947 to 2000, r...

Risk Perception of Pregnancy Promotes Disapproval ofGestational Surrogacy: Analysis of a Nationally Representative Opinion Survey in Japan

Elite cues and public polarization on transgender rights

This study adds to the emerging literature explaining public opinion toward transgender rights by demonstrating the importance of elite cues for such an opinion. Data from two cross-sectional surveys conducted in 2015 and 2016 measure public opinion on several policies affecting transgender people. Consistent with Zaller [1992. The Nature and Origins of Mass Opinion. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge Un...

Public opinion on alcohol policy: a review of U.S. research. | Goliath Business News

Although public sentiments concerning alcohol issues have long been a subject of historical and social research, public opinion in relation to specific alcohol policies has only recently emerged as a research area in its own right. In the late 1970s, Goodstadt et al. stated, "[a]pparently, no sophisticated studies of public attitudes towards [policies regarding] the pricing of alcoholic beverag...

1 The Directing Power ? A Comparative Study of Public Opinion and Income Distribution

Although a number of studies have examined the influence of public opinion on government policy, few have considered the influence of public opinion on social conditions. These are separate questions, since government policies may not have their intended effects and opinion may influence some outcomes independently of government action. This paper examines the relationship between public suppor...