Polls and Surveys

NORMAN M. BRADBURN is senior vice president for National Opinion Research. He is the Tiffany and Margaret Blake Distinguished Service professor in the department of psychology and the Harris Graduate School of Public Policy Studies at the University of Chicago.SEYMOUR SUDMAN is a Walter H. Stellner Distinguished Professor of Marketing and deputy director and research professor at the Survey Research Laboratory at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He is the author, coauthor, or editor of seventeen books including Asking Questions (Jossey-Bass, 1982) which he wrote with Norman M. Bradburn.

• 1. Polling the Public: Purpose and Process2. Growth of Public Opinion Polling3. Proper and Improper Uses of Surveys4. The Organizations That Do the Polling5. How Information Is Collected6. How Respondents are Selected7. Asking the Question: How Wording Affects Response8. What Do the Answers Mean?9. Understanding Sources of Error10. Should Polls Be Banned?11. Effects of Polls on Elections, Governments, Business, and MediaGlossaryReferencesIndex