The Problem With Public Opinion

In the first section of chapter 5, our textbook briefly mentions the work of political scientist Larry Bartels, whose research showed how uninformed that the middle-class and lower-income Americans were on many social and political issues. The rest of the chapter goes on to talk about political, attitudes, polling, and government accountability. In my leadership class, we actually read Bartels’ study on public opinion and framing, and I think that it plays a much larger role in our study of public opinion than the chapter lets on. Bartels’ “Democracy with Attitudes” plays an essential role in our understanding of public opinion and the peoples’ relationship with their government.

One of the biggest elements of Bartels’ argument is the importance of framing when conducting a poll. He found that the phrasing of a question was essential to how a person could potentially answer it. For instance, people were more agreeable to the idea of “assistance to the poor” than “welfare,” even though these phrases are synonymous. When asking someone a question about this issue, the question about welfare and the question about assistance to the poor could be asked exactly the same way, but framing of the questions are different because of the choice of words on the issue that is being asked. This difference in framing leads to different responses from the person answering the question, which in turn can be very problematic for government and democracy, according to Bartels. Many people in America have a very relaxed and flexible opinion on important issues that affect the country as a whole, but these opinions can easily be swayed by the framing of the questions that they are asked on these issues. If a person is giving different responses to questions asking about the same thing, then how to we determine how they feel about that issue? This makes it incredibly difficult for the government to gage what their constituents want from them, and therefore undermines the nature of our democracy.

This problem with framing spreads to other relevant issues that are creating distinct divides in American culture today. The issue of healthcare, and more specifically the state of the Affordable Care Act, have been in the news constantly, and people have not been reluctant in sharing their opinion about the role of the government in our healthcare system. What’s problematic, though, is the framing of the issue and how it can change the opinions of voters. An alarmingly high number of Americans do not know that Obamacare and the Affordable Care Act are simply two different names for the same piece of legislation, and mentioning the name “Obamacare” will polarize people in a way that the name “Affordable Care Act” does not. This creates a very negative sentiment around Obama’s healthcare policy, and this name will lead people to want it abolished when they don’t have a full understanding of what that means. Voters will ask their representatives to do something about making changes in the healthcare system, but since the voters are not well-informed enough and are easily manipulated by the framing of the Affordable Care Act, their representatives will not be able to govern and respond in the way that their constituents want them to.

Sources:

Bartels, L.M. 2003. “Democracy with Attitudes.” In M. MacKuen & G. Rabinowitz (Eds), Electoral Democracy (pp. 48-82). Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

“Obamacare And Affordable Care Act Are The Same, But Americans Still Don’t Know That.” NPR, NPR, 11 Feb. 2017, www.npr.org/2017/02/11/514732211/obamacare-and-affordable-care-act-are-the-same-but-americans-still-dont-know-tha.

5 Responses to "The Problem With Public Opinion"

Esteban Lara says:

October 10, 2017 at 1:29 am

You raise a very important point in the way that the media can manipulate the opinions of voters. Framing and phrasing questions in polls can skew the data taken from polls, which makes the primary purpose of polling unreliable, but can affect the public opinion of people. This is the tip of an iceberg that I believe is a huge problem in politics around the world. The media is able to take information that they have acquired through legal and traditional means, but they change the information that is being used to help manipulate the opinions of those who watch and read their news. This ensures that news sources/companies can really use their information to push forward their political views and help the opinions of politicians who they favor. Good article, it’s important to point out the issue with framing polls.
Camryn Travis says:

October 10, 2017 at 6:08 am

Katie’s point about political polling and framing is extremely relevant to American politics and democracy. The use of buzzwords and trigger phrases can have such a great impact on how a person responds to a poll. I think it is also interesting to note that the framing of a poll not only affects the results of that poll but it may also affect the results of future polls. Many Americans are unaware of political issues, or try to find the easiest way to become knowledgeable on issues. One way people become informed is through looking at polling information. Some people may look at the political preferences of people like them and follow those trends. Polls with suggestive framing that state people of a specific demographic are politically inclined one way or another, inaccurately portray political ideology to other American voters. In this way the results of one poll may influence the political preference of different individuals, in turn influencing future polls.
Kevin Todd says:

October 11, 2017 at 9:24 am

You raise very interesting points regarding polling. I think it is important to point out that many Americans are still uninformed and lack interest and knowledge about aspects in politics. This causes citizens to rely on shortcuts such as political officials to explain what is going on politically. This could have a downside to it as different political officials have different views about issues and therefore causes the people listening to agree or disagree with those ideas. This could be a reason why people change their opinions on certain subjects such as the example you brought up with our healthcare system. Some people will automatically be for or against “Obamacare” just because of the label rather than the Affordable Care Act. The people who supported Obama will have a positive outlook on Obamacare and if they did not support his ways then therefore do not like Obamacare. It is important for a polling question to be as dry as possible. What I mean by dry is that it should not appeal to any of the senses that would potentially cause voters to answer a question differently if it was in a different context.
Alice Depasse says:

October 11, 2017 at 9:10 pm

The affect that framing has on people is much more significant then many people are aware of. Your point about Obamacare is a perfect demonstration. People who are very set in their views will sick to them even in the face of a rational counter argument out of principle. Therefore, if people pick up on terms and phrases that they associate with the issue at hand, often their reaction will be different then if they are only aware of the facts. This can also be abused by the media to miseducate people on politics. If a media is associated with a particular party, they may use certain frameworks to cause negative associations with the competition party. This has often been done by Fox, CNN, MSNBC. An example if that Fox was systemically using derogatory words to describe Obama, so even if their views were not against Obama would begin to associate him with negative connotations.

This, issue of framing then carries on to the greater issue of, people supporting or rejecting policy or ideas based on who it is coming from. Often people from one political party will disagree with passing a bill because it is coming from the opposing party and people therefore will misinterpret intentions. The best example I can think of is when Ronald Reagan was able to work with the Soviet Union after calling them an “evil empire”. When previous President Jimmy Carter, who was a democrat, had attempted to do the same he was met with criticism for being too soft. Yet, as a Republican who had spoken so outwardly against the Soviet Union, Reagan was seen as a hero for ameliorating the situation between the two super powers. It goes to show how impressionable people can be depending on the formatting and framing of an issue.
Reid Chenault says:

October 11, 2017 at 11:52 pm

I think this topic is one of the most prevalent topics in politics today. The idea of framing questions to obtain the answer that politicians would like to hear can lead to a false statement of the population’s views. The main point of polling data is to figure out the peoples views on certain elections, campaigns, laws, etc. However, the idea of framing these questions allows for the data collectors to show the people a not so true look at the publics opinion. This could then cause voters to change their opinion to fit in with rest of their constituents. If these voters are changing their opinions, this too is undermining democracy as it is not the true opinion of the people. American democracy prides itself on popular sovereignty, and the framing of polling data could be one small factor that is destroying authority of the people. It may seem like not that big of a problem; however, over time the false opinions of the public could start to swing more and more voters to the side of the majority.

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