Characteristics of Opinion Poll Reporting: Creating the Change Narrative

Larsen, Erik Gahner; Fazekas, Zoltán

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-75350-4_4

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

References 33 publications

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“…A related potential source of distrust can be the biases journalists introduce in the interpretation of survey results. Examples of this include unsubstantiated reports of change due to the demand for horse race coverage (Bhatti & Pedersen, 2016;Larsen & Fazekas, 2021). Finally, people may distrust survey results regardless of their methodological background due to motivated reasoning or political motivation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Trust in Survey Results. A Cross-country Replication Experiment

Stefkovics¹,

Kmetty²

2023

Preprint

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Amidst a flood of new survey results, people selectively determine which results to trust. These decisions may be shaped by perceived methodological quality, the survey’s sponsor or platform, and various individual political and non-political characteristics. This study examined the factors that drive trustworthiness assessments of survey results in the two countries. Study 1 replicated the study of Stadtmüller et al. (2022), Study 2 extended the original study by applying the same experimental design to a more contested and politicized issue (immigration). In online panel surveys, respondents were asked to rate hypothetical survey results. Survey quality information, sponsors, and survey results varied in the vignettes. The results show that most of the findings of Stadtmüller et al. (2022) travel well across survey topics and countries. Individual characteristics explain more than survey quality information, larger sample sizes enhance trust, and individuals with higher level of education attribute more importance to methodological information, regardless of the topic, in both countries. Our study brought nuance to the original findings by showing that the extent to which individuals incorporate survey quality information depends on the degree of controversy and politicization associated with the survey topic.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%