Question 1

Polls designed to influence respondents' opinions are known as __________ polls.

Accepted Answer

A) anecdotal 
B) focus 
C) push 
D) salience

Question 2

France bans the publication of polls close to election day.

Accepted Answer

A) True 
 B)False

Question 3

Beginning with the work of Karl Marx,scholars have treated social class as an important factor in public opinion.

Accepted Answer

A) True 
 B)False

Question 4

Which of these is the best strategy for policy makers to use to create better policy on a particular issue?

Accepted Answer

A) follow what the opinion polls state regarding the issue 
B) balance opinion polls with their own knowledge on the issue 
C) set up stricter opinion polling guidelines to ensure greater reliability 
D) disregard opinion polls since the public has little policy making expertise

Question 5

Survey results show that __________ Americans tend to be more tolerant and more in favor of civil rights than the public as a whole.

Accepted Answer

A) wealthy 
B) rural-dwelling 
C) college-educated 
D) strongly religious

Question 6

One challenge of __________ approach is that many Americans tend to identify as middle class,even if they are too poor or too rich to qualify.

Accepted Answer

A) an anecdotal 
B) a scientific 
C) an objective 
D) a subjective

Question 7

Which type of distribution curve is the most dangerous for a democracy?

Accepted Answer

A) bell-shaped 
B) bimodal 
C) rightward-skewed 
D) unimodal

Question 8

According to Almond,the elite might play to the attentive public because the attentive public tends to __________.

Accepted Answer

A) accept elite views 
B) represent the view of the society as a whole 
C) pass on views that mobilize the general public 
D) take a more negative view on elite control than the general public does

Question 9

Which statement explains how Nate Silver was able to predict an Obama win in 2012 more confidently than many pollsters?

Accepted Answer

A) His poll asked clearer,more useful questions than other polls did. 
B) He carefully aggregated polls,taking swing state trends into account. 
C) He polled a more representative sample of voters than other pollsters did. 
D) He knew that the electorate was more liberal than most polls at the time were suggesting.

Question 10

Wallonia in Belgium and Basque country in Spain are examples of center-periphery tensions.

Accepted Answer

A) True 
 B)False

Question 11

The relationship between education and social class is weak.

Accepted Answer

A) True 
 B)False

Question 12

Most elected officials in the United States are pro-Israel,despite Jews comprising only about 2 percent of the population.This can be explained by __________.

Accepted Answer

A) the importance of religion in American society 
B) the dominance of the two major parties over policy outcomes 
C) media coverage that privileges the Middle Eastern perspective 
D) the tendency of politicians to pay attention to those who hold intense beliefs

Question 13

Which of these statements about the role of race and ethnicity in politics is the most accurate?

Accepted Answer

A) The party loyalties of ethnic groups rarely change. 
B) Politics based on ethnicity have the potential to be fluid and change over time. 
C) Religion is much more important than race and ethnicity in shaping public opinion. 
D) Ethnic consciousness has little effect on public opinion in heterogeneous nations like the United States.

Question 14

The labels "conservative" and "liberal" have different meanings for different groups of voters.

Accepted Answer

A) True 
 B)False

Question 15

Elections rarely show __________.

Accepted Answer

A) how voters feel about specific issues 
B) how politically engaged the population is 
C) which areas of the country have the highest turnout 
D) a clear electoral mandate for the winning candidates

Question 16

American presidents tend to experience high public opinion ratings during their honeymoon period and after rally events such as the Iran hostage crisis.

Accepted Answer

A) True 
 B)False

Question 17

Suppose two surveys are conducted,one asking people's level of support for "welfare" and the other using the term "assistance to the poor." The former survey finds much lower support than the latter.This discrepancy shows that __________.

Accepted Answer

A) public opinion surveys are generally unreliable 
B) pollsters should avoid questions dealing with social policy 
C) a misinformed public will provide inconsistent survey answers 
D) pollsters must be careful to word questions in ways that avoid biased responses

Question 18

Only leaders in democratic nations are vulnerable to changes in public opinion.

Accepted Answer

A) True 
 B)False

Question 19

A person's dedication to her organic vegetable garden would not be considered part of public opinion but her __________ would be.

Accepted Answer

A) crop output 
B) eating habits 
C) views on food industry 
D) activities at the farmer's market

Question 20

The government bank bailouts in response to the 2008 financial crisis illustrate the gap between elites and mass public opinion.

Accepted Answer

A) True 
 B)False

Exam 7: Public Opinion

Polls designed to influence respondents' opinions are known as __________ polls.

France bans the publication of polls close to election day.

Beginning with the work of Karl Marx,scholars have treated social class as an important factor in public opinion.

Which of these is the best strategy for policy makers to use to create better policy on a particular issue?

Survey results show that __________ Americans tend to be more tolerant and more in favor of civil rights than the public as a whole.

One challenge of __________ approach is that many Americans tend to identify as middle class,even if they are too poor or too rich to qualify.

Which type of distribution curve is the most dangerous for a democracy?

According to Almond,the elite might play to the attentive public because the attentive public tends to __________.

Which statement explains how Nate Silver was able to predict an Obama win in 2012 more confidently than many pollsters?

Wallonia in Belgium and Basque country in Spain are examples of center-periphery tensions.

The relationship between education and social class is weak.

Most elected officials in the United States are pro-Israel,despite Jews comprising only about 2 percent of the population.This can be explained by __________.

Which of these statements about the role of race and ethnicity in politics is the most accurate?

The labels "conservative" and "liberal" have different meanings for different groups of voters.

Elections rarely show __________.

American presidents tend to experience high public opinion ratings during their honeymoon period and after rally events such as the Iran hostage crisis.

Suppose two surveys are conducted,one asking people's level of support for "welfare" and the other using the term "assistance to the poor." The former survey finds much lower support than the latter.This discrepancy shows that __________.

Only leaders in democratic nations are vulnerable to changes in public opinion.

A person's dedication to her organic vegetable garden would not be considered part of public opinion but her __________ would be.

The government bank bailouts in response to the 2008 financial crisis illustrate the gap between elites and mass public opinion.