What is a biased sample?An election in which citizens vote directly on a proposition raised by a group of fellow citizens.
What is framing?Portraying a problem or decision so as to highlight certain aspects and influence decision making.
Define ideology.A coherent, organized set of ideas and principles that functions as a core on which individuals draw when forming their attitudes about public affairs.
Define margin of error.In statistical research, the range of outcomes we expect for a population, given the data revealed by a sample drawn from that population.


What is a non-attitude?A lack of opinion on an issue, or an opinion so weakly held that it does not enter into a person's calculations about voting or taking some other political action, even though the person may express an opinion to a pollster.
What is party identification (partisanship)?Loyalty or psychological attachment to a political party.
What is a population?In statistical research, the entire group about which you want to learn, such as all adults living in the United States.
What is priming?The process by which certain issues, or certain aspects of an issue, are made to seem more important in making a decision.


What is public opinion?The collection of attitudes, opinions, and preferences of the general public.
What is random selection?Choosing a sample such that each member of a population has an equal chance of being selected into the sample.
Define rationality.The habit of choosing the best choice among available options given one's interests and information.
What is a sample?In statistical research, a subset of the population chosen to provide information for the research about the population.


What is agenda setting?Determining which public policy questions will be debated or considered.
What is a consensus?General agreement among the citizenry on an issue.
What is a divisive opinion?Public opinion that is polarized between two quite different positions.
What is a gender gap?The difference between the percentage of women who vote for a particular candidate and the percentage of men who vote for the candidate.


What is a generational effect?A long-lasting effect of the events of a particular time on the political opinions of those who came of political age at that time.
What is the life cycle effect?Concept that people change as they grow older because of age-specific experiences and thus are likely to hold age-specific attitudes.
What is a non-opinion?The lack of an opinion on an issue or policy among the majority.
What is an opinion leader?One who is able to influence the opinions of others because of position, expertise, or personality.


What is an opinion poll?A method of systematically questioning a small, selected sample of respondents who are deemed representative of the total population.
What is a peer group?A group consisting of members sharing common social characteristics. These groups play an important part in the socialization process, helping to shape attitudes and beliefs.
What is political socialization?The process by which people acquire political beliefs and attitudes.
What is political trust?The degree to which individuals express trust in the government and political institutions, usually measured through a specific series of survey questions.


What is sampling error?In statistics, sampling error is incurred when the statistical characteristics of a population are estimated from a subset, or sample, of that population. Since the sample does not include all members of the population, statistics on the sample, such as means and quantiles, generally differ from parameters on the entire population.
What is socioeconomic status?The value assigned to a person due to occupation or income. An upper-class person, for example, has high socioeconomic status.
What is aggregate partisanship?The distribution, or percentage, of the electorate that identifies with each of the political parties.
Define ambivalence.the state of having conflicting emotional attitudes


What is a cognitive shortcut?A mental device allowing citizens to make complex decisions based on a small amount of information. For example, a candidate's party label serves as a shortcut by telling voters much about his or her positions on issues.
Who are conservatives?people who generally favor limited government and are cautious about change
What are core values?beliefs or qualities that a brand stands for and is built around.
Who are issue publics?subsets of the population who are better informed than everyone else about an issue because it touches them more directly and personally


Who are liberals?people who generally favor government action and view change as progress
What are measurement errors?Uncertainties in public opinion, as revealed by responses to polls, that arise from the imperfect connection between the wording of survey questions and the terms in which people understand and think about political objects.
What is scientific polling?Tool developed in the twentieth century for systematically investigating the opinions of ordinary people, based on random samples.