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QUESTION WORDING IN PUBLIC OPINION POLLS Comments on points raised by Mr. Stagner George Gallup Dr. Stagner's criticisms indicate a clearly constructiveapproach on his part to the problems of public opinion measure-ment, as encountered by individuals and organizations actuallyengaged in this work. It
is
to be hoped that his article willstimulate further discussion of current polls and polling tech-niques.The science of public opinion measurement
is
stilladolescent--so relatively new that it will take the combinedthinking of many research minds to chart and develop its fu-ture. I have suggested from time to time that a national com-mittee of research be set up in this field as a permanent bodyto advise the various survey organizations and projects.The need for such a body
is
indicated, indeed, by Stag-ner's present paper. Stagner's conclusions concerning thewording of questions very largely rest, he indicates, upon thefindings of Blankenship.But there are certain distinct limita-tions to Blankenship's experiment--limitations which Blanken-ship himself was careful to point out, but which, it may seemto other observers, have not been sufficiently regarded in theStagner paper.Blankenship's study of opinion in Irvington, New Jersey,on the question of the popular referendum on legalizing pari-mutuel betting in June, 1939, dealt with a question which appar-ently was of no great interest to a large section of the popula-tion.The official vote
in
Irvington brought out slightly lessthan 7,000 voters, which represented something smaller thanone-third of the Irvington voting population and less than
20
percent of the adult population. In comparing the results onthe different question forms on separate samples (which aver-aged about 350 each), with the election returns, however,Blankenship used all people interviewed who were registeredvoters and who indicated an intention to vote in the parimutuelreferendum--an average of about
58
percent of the samples. Itseems clear that Blankenship's samples contained too great aproportion of people who were not sufficiently interested in theelection to register their vote at the polls, for the samples to
 
260 SOCIOMETRYbe directly comparable with the election results.In Blanken-ship's total sample of 3,000, the "no opinionn vote on what hecalls the "variable questions" ranged between an average of24.2 percent and 29.3 percent.It
is
not the purpose of this article to examine theBlankenship experiment in detail, but I do think it
is
worth-while pointing out here that the results of the Blankenship ex-periment should, at the very least, be considered as one con-tribution to the problem of question wording, and not as thefinal word on this issue.Blankenship himself stated his own reservations as fol-lows in his conclusions:
"The question form (as far as suggestion is con-cerned) would matter least when pub1 ic opinion was verydefinitely crystallized on a subject
.....
For example,when pub1 ic opinion is so definitely crystallized as onthe subject of who is in the right in the European war,the question form would probably matter little,
if
atall..... The one thing that this study definitely indi-cates
Is
the need for further research*
"I
To ignore this very sensible note
d
caution, to expandBlankenship's single experiment (carried out with small sam-ples on issues where sentiment was not crystallized) into a gen-eral rule applicable to all issues at all times, as Stagner hasdone,
is
probably to go far beyond, if not contrary to, Blanken-ship's own findings.Stagner himself states that "biased question formsnhave an effect on poll results only "when opinions are vagueand weakly held," (as they clearly were in the case of the Ir-vington experiment).Blankenship's conclusions concerning the negligible in-fluence of question wordings when opinion
is
definitely formed,tally closely with the Institute's own experience in conductingmore
than
1,000 surveys in the past seven years.Differencesin wording have
had
little or no effect on issues where therewas a low no-opinion vote, that
is,
issues on which the peoplehave made up their minds.The split-ballot technique, in whichthe Institute
has
done considerable research, furnishes abundantevidence to support this point.2In the split-ballot technique, two forms of
a
questionare printed for purposes of experimentation on the effects of
i~sychological Record, Vol.
I
11,
No.
23,
pp. 401-402.2~ee elow, p.
264.
 
261
UBLIC OPINION POLLSdifferent wording--let us say, an "A" form and a"B"form.The "A" form
is
put to one half the voters in the cross-sectionand the "B"form to the other half--both halves containing ex-actly comparable types of voters.Rare
is
the instance in which the difference betweenthe two wordings produces a variation in results greater thanthe expected variation due to size of sample, when opinion onthe issue
is
definitely formed. It can, therefore, be stated thatthe "suggestive" effect of a positive or negative type of ques-tion or of a difference in wording
is
largely
a
function of thedegree of crystallization of opinion on an issue, and tends todecrease to zero as the no-opinion vote tends to zero. Mostwar issues belong to this latter category.Relying on Blankenship's finding that, in the Irvington,New Jersey experiment, the objective wording proved "more re-liable" than the subjective form, Stagner then goes on to con-demn the @subjective" form of wording, which he claims theInstitute uses more frequently than the objective type. The sub-jective type, it will be recalled,
is
defined as a question con-taining the word "you"; for example, "Do you think the C.C.C.camps should or should not be continued?" The so-called "ob-jective" question, on the other hand,
is
stated in terms of thethird person, thus:"Should or should not the
C.C.C.
camps becontinued?
"
It
is
necessary to point out, however, that among re-search men, there
is
considerable disagreement as to the rela-tive merits of the two types.Floyd Allport has advanced exactly the opposite conclu-sion to that of Stagner.He believes there should be not fewer"subjective" questions but more:
"ens
ider, for example, quest ions deal ing withsuch issues as a measure to reorganize the Supreme Court,to alter neutrality restrictions.
...
.
In these questionsthe average citizen can think of the proposalon1 y assomething applying to an abstraction such as the State ofthe Nation.
It
is vague in its implications, and apartfrom himself..... By asking questions of this type wetake the issue away from the individual and "third-per-sonizen
it.
In order to discover how the individualstands in the most dynamic and pragmatic sense, we mustbring the problem back for him into the first person.....Some of the polling questions used are indeed couched inthese first-personized terms; but they seem to be far out-numbered by questions of the third-personized variety.
A
preliminary count of
198
of the questions asked over theperiod
from
1936
to 1940 in the American Institute poll
of 00

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