The use of public-opinion studies

The rapid spread of public-opinion measurement around the world is a reflection of the number of uses to which it can be put. Governments have increasingly found surveys to be useful tools for guiding their public-information and propaganda programs and occasionally for helping in the formulation of other kinds of policies. The U.S. Department of Agriculture was one of the first government agencies to sponsor systematic and large-scale surveys. It was followed by many other federal bodies, including the U.S. Information Agency, which has conducted opinion research in all parts of the world in which such activities are permitted. Public-opinion studies made abroad following the orbiting of the first Soviet satellite contributed to the decision of the United States to speed up its own space program. Similarly, governments of many other countries now either commission polls on questions of domestic and foreign policy or pay close attention to surveys made under private auspices. France, West Germany, and Japan are among the most frequent users of this kind of research, and there are few major countries that have not commissioned one or more surveys for policy purposes. India and Indonesia are among the newer nations that have occasionally turned to opinion measurement (Free 1967).

Individual politicians, as well as governments, have found polls useful. Opinion surveys can give them a rough estimate of their chances of election and can also help them gauge the salience of various issues with the voters and evaluate the effectiveness of their campaign propaganda. Once in office they can use polls to keep in touch with opinion trends in their constituencies. As of 1953, 48 members of the U.S. House of Representatives were known to be sponsoring opinion surveys, and 14 more said they intended to do so; significantly, most lawmakers in question were in the younger age groups, a fact that suggests that more congressmen may be using polls at the present time (Hawver 1954, p. 125). Politicians and political parties in western European countries are known to have shown similar interests in survey research.

Private businesses and associations have made even more frequent use of polling techniques. Most of the surveys done for business come under the heading of market rather than opinion research and are primarily concerned with product preferences, but large numbers are concerned with public issues, such as government regulation, the economic outlook, or community relations. There are also numerous studies of the public image of individual enterprises or whole industries. Such studies fall somewhere between market and opinion research, and many of them are commissioned by public-relations counsel working on behalf of the business or industry concerned. Labor unions, churches, and professional bodies have also used polls on occasion; the medical profession has been especially active in this regard. Innumerable small polls (and some large ones) have been conducted by academic researchers working with students. Indeed, it has been said that more is known about the opinions of American college sophomores than about the opinions of any other group in the world.

A very different but equally important use of measurement is made by those who are primarily interested in other approaches to public-opinion research. Quantitative studies have provided many of the building blocks for those who study the internal relationships among opinions on public issues, the political role of public opinion, and the impact of communications. Measurement techniques have thus contributed importantly to the formation of theories and hypotheses in all branches of public-opinion research.