What Binary Questions Get Wrong About Voters

About this episode

The episode discusses how binary survey questions can misrepresent voter opinions and polarization.

Are Americans really polarized along party lines? Today, we discuss a new paper from our co-host Anthony Fowler, about one of the most common tools researchers use to measure public opinion: simple yes-or-no survey questions. Most political surveys ask people to choose between two options—support or oppose, yes or no. But Fowler’s research shows that these binary questions can hide important nuance in how people actually think about policy. When researchers analyze these responses, it can make voters appear more polarized—or more ideologically inconsistent—than they really are.

People in this episode

Hosts: University of Chicago Podcast Network, Anthony Fowler

Topics covered

• voter polarization
• public opinion
• survey methodology
• binary questions
• political analysis

Keywords

• voters
• polarization
• yes-or-no questions
• public opinion research
• political surveys

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