Question: No Opinion of Your Own? Let Politics Decide
This is an excellent example of how people will respond to survey questions when they do not know about the issues, and how the wording of questions can influence responses. In 1995, the Washington Post decided to expand on a 1978 poll taken in Cincinnati, Ohio, in which people were asked whether they "favored or opposed repealing the 1975 Public Affairs Act" (Morin, 1995, p. 36). There was no such act, but about one-third of the respondents expressed an opinion about it. In February 1995, the Washington Post added this fictitious question to its weekly poll of 1000 randomly selected respondents: "Some people say the 1975 Public Affairs Act should be repealed. Do you agree or disagree that it should be repealed?" Almost half (43%) of the sample expressed an opinion, with 24% agreeing that it should be repealed and 19% disagreeing!
The Post then tried another trick that produced even more disturbing results. This time, they polled two separate groups of 500 randomly selected adults. The first group was asked: "President Clinton [a Democrat] said that the 1975 Public Affairs Act should be repealed. Do you agree or disagree?" The second group was asked: "The Republicans in Congress said that the 1975 Public Affairs Act should be repealed. Do you agree or disagree?" Respondents were also asked about their party affiliation. Overall, 53% of the respondents expressed an opinion about repealing this fictional act! The results by party affiliation were striking: For the Clinton version, 36% of the Democrats but only 16% of the Republicans agreed that the act should be repealed. For the "Republicans in Congress" version, 36% of the Republicans but only 19% of the Democrats agreed that the act should be repealed.