Understanding Public Opinion Polls

Jelke Bethlehem is an expert in the methodology of surveys and polls. For 36 years, he conducted research at Statistics Netherlands. Research topics were nonresponse, disclosure control, and online data collection. He has written several books about surveys and polls, the most important ones being Applied Survey Methods, Handbook of Nonresponse in Household Surveys, and Handbook of Web Surveys. He has retired from Statistics Netherland now, but is still a professor in survey methodology at the Leiden University.

• Public Opinion. Some History. Setting up a Poll. Asking Questions. Selecting a Sample. Collecting Data. Checking and Correcting Data. Computing Estimates. The Nonresponse Problem. Online Polls. Analyzing the Data. Publishing the results. A Checklist for Polls. References. Index.

"It is a welcome arrival at this fraught moment for the field. Bethlehem does not flinch from discussing the vulnerabilities of public opinion research, e.g., plummeting response rates, voters’ tendency to "satisfice" by opting for easy responses rather than honest responses, the menace of online snap polls, etc. His objective is to help a new generation of survey researchers avoid (or at least finesse) these problems. . . The book is nonetheless a solid introduction to the field for young researchers preparing to adapt to the challenges presented by more elusive and skeptical voters."~R. P. Seyb, CHOICE"Summarizing, the book is well written, its content is clearly presented, and many practical illustrations should give the reader a good basis for answering the questions of the Checklist for Polls and for assessing whether a concrete poll can be trusted. It can be recommended to everybody who is involved in surveys and polls, be it as consumer of poll results or as participant in a related project."~Peter Hackl, Stat Papers