Student Resources

Learning Objectives

Chapter 1

• Public opinion is the predominant sentiment held by members of a social group on social and political issues. There are at least six kinds of public opinion. First,consensus (75 percent) is halfway between unanimity and majority. Majority opinion is identified in cases when more than 50 percent of a population expresses a similar opinion on an issue, and plurality opinion is the largest proportion of people sharing an opinion on an issue. A segment of a population may express concerns and beliefs called intense minority opinions. The attentive public are those who pay particular attention to specific policy areas. Finally, elite opinion is the prevailing sentiment among policymakers and other individuals capable of influencing the direction of domestic and foreign policy.
• Opinions must be understood within their social context. Several factors should be taken in consideration. The overall political environment in which a poll is taken affects the content of both survey questions and respondents’ answers. Cultural, ideological, and religious values often affect respondents’ views about and orientations to events and issues. Social norms and practices affect what questions are asked in surveys. If social norms and values change, questions in opinion polls reflect these changes. People tend to become attentive to events and issues when something dramatic happens around them in their community, in their country, or around the world.
• The practical, comparative, political, and ideological values of surveys are also determined by a variety of circumstances. Published surveys convey important information about issues, products, or services, and some people base their decisions about these on the survey results. Many people tend to keep their eyes on what other people think or do. By comparing our own opinions to those held by others we learn not only about those others but also about ourselves. In the world of politics, opinion polls can show which issues draw the support of potential voters and which problems do not. Politicians and public officials running for office turn to polls to estimate the strength of their support among potential voters.
• In the ongoing discussion about the impact of public opinion on policies enacted by government, there are two basic views on how public opinion should affect policy. According to the trustee outlook, in a democracy, people’s representatives should be relatively independent decision makers. Acting on behalf of their constituencies, they should not address every grievance of the citizens or satisfy every wish of their voters. According to the delegate view, people’s elected representatives should conduct policy in response to their constituents’ requests and wishes.
• Specific circumstances mediate the impact of public opinion on policy. Among them are the structure of government institutions and communications, political competition and elections, and the level of people’s engagement in politics. Overall, political elites and interested groups tend to be more influential than people who are not interested in social and political issues. Likewise, individuals who take active roles in the political process, join forces in effective groups, and command greater resources are typically more influential than the unorganized public.

Chapter 2

• Quantitative research methods examine social characteristics and opinions as variables primarily through observation and measurement. Because opinion measurement deals with a large number of respondents—individuals who express their opinions—the most common indicator is the average.
• Public opinion studies examine opinions within samples, or specially selected groups, relatively small numbers of individuals, chosen to represent a whole population or universe. The sampling error indicates the extent to which the sample differs by chance from the population it represents.
• One of the main goals the researcher pursues is the creation of a sample that closely resembles the whole category of people under investigation. Such a sample is called a representative sample, whose characteristics should accurately reflect those of the population. Random sampling, if planned and conducted correctly, is one of the most reliable methods of designing a representative sample. A random sample is expected to be representative of a group (a state, a nation) thousands of times larger than itself.
• A specialist or student conducting opinion research often needs to establish relationships, or correlations, between two or more variables. The strength of a correlation is expressed by a correlation coefficient. Correlation does not prove causation between variables.
• The survey or poll is the most common technique for collecting data in opinion studies. In a typical survey, a trained interviewer asks respondents to express their opinion about a particular topic or issue. Survey questions typically are dichotomous, open-ended, or multiple-choice.
• The type of questions asked and the order in which they are presented may significantly affect the distribution of answers as well as their interpretation.
• A survey question is considered bad when it is worded in a way that generates ambiguous reactions or causes all respondents to produce similar answers. The three categories of survey question errors are linguistic, swaying, and cognitive.
• A variety of psychological and other context-related factors affect each respondent’s answers.
• Several non-survey methods are used in opinion studies. Although used less often than polls, they may provide important data, especially when polling is unavailable or inappropriate. Among these non-survey approaches are experiments, content analysis, focus groups, meta-analysis, and qualitative methods.

Chapter 3

• Critical thinking is an active and systematic intellectual strategy for examining, evaluating, and understanding opinion polls on the basis of sound reasoning and valid evidence. Learning to think critically in analyzing and interpreting survey data is a vital and indispensable component of the process of learning about people’s opinions.
• There are verifiable facts, and there are assumptions. Many individuals answer survey questions by using and expressing their assumptions rather than actual knowledge.
• Some people tend to maintain preconceptions and expectations about certain issues without verifying the accuracy of their opinions. In some situations, preconceptions are helpful in anticipating events. People also make logical mistakes.
• The rules or guidelines of critical thinking fit into four categories or sets. The first set of rules deals with the circumstances under which the poll was conducted. This includes the examination of the context in which the survey was taken and the survey’s design. The second set of guidelines helps you take into considerationprejudgments in the process of understanding and interpreting of surveys. The third set deals with the way we use language in descriptions of survey results. The fourth set provides suggestions about forming a better understanding of the reasons and causes that determine people’s opinions.
• Many events capture a respondent’s attention and affect his or her responses to questions. Among these are local economic and social developments, national events, media attention to the survey’s subject, and knowledge about the subject. If interpretations of an event are easily retrieved from memory, that event seems more prevalent than an equally frequent event that does not evoke easily retrieved interpretations. Vivid examples, spectacular events, personal testimonies, and accidents are likely to exert a disproportionate impact on people’s judgment.
• The way survey questions are asked can influence the responders’ answers. The observer must determine whether the design and order of the survey’s questions might have affected the respondents’ opinions.
• Generalizations about opinion patterns and social groups that carry them are likely to be incomplete or inaccurate. The observer may see respondents as belonging to a homogeneous category; however, the diversity within that group may be wide.
• Many people tend to make data fit their opinion rather than fit their opinion to the data. Moreover, people may pay attention to polls that confirm their views and miss others that challenge their views.
• When interpreting a survey, it is vital to recognize who the sponsor is, especially if the sponsor is a political or social organization.
• A fundamental and pervasive human psychological activity is the propensity to name things and people, to attach labels to them. Labels are then easily converted into opinions, and opinions into facts.
• An important element of critical thinking is its reliance on the original source of the polling data. If you can see the results firsthand, you might find that an observer’s interpretation of this poll is inaccurate or biased.
• People naturally tend to dichotomize variables that are more accurately conceptualized as continuous. Many observable phenomena that lie along a continuum, somewhere between point A and point B, are frequently presumed to fit into either category A or category B.
• One type of post hoc judgment error is related to the co-appearance of two events. People may mistakenly conclude that, simply because Event B follows Event A, then B must have been caused by A. They misconstrue temporal linkage as causal linkage despite lack of supporting evidence.
• Virtually every significant behavior, or its results (including expressed opinions), has many determinants, and any single-factor explanation is inevitably an oversimplification.

Chapter 4

• Attitudes are not easy to depict because they are not directly observable. Therefore, any description of attitude is an act of imagination. Attitudes are commonly viewed according to a model whose two dimensions are the cognitive and the affective.
• In their beliefs, individuals typically establish cognitive relationships between two or among several issues. Beliefs typically do not contain evaluations. Values are stable and enduring dispositions that indicate a preference for a specific behavior or goal over others.
• Values can be categorized according to several approaches. One approach investigates three basic issues: (a) the extent to which people are independent of or dependent on groups; (b) people’s views on prosperity and profit; and, (c) people’s views on whether they should exploit, fit in with, or submit to the outside world.
• According to the cognitive approach to attitudes, the expert should focus on how the individual represents and organizes her experience cognitively. Cognitive processes, such as perception, memory, recognition, and decision making, are critical to attitude formation and expression.
• According to the regulatory-adaptation approach, attitudes should be treated as reactions or habits; people learn attitudes that prove useful in particular cultural and social circumstances.
• Some attitudes are easily accessible; others are not. Overall, an attitude’s accessibility is determined by the strength of the cognitive connections between an image and its evaluation. Several factors determine attitude accessibility.
• Cognitive balance theories state that people seek consistency among their attitudes by trying to avoid any mismatch among them or between attitudes and behavior.
• The response theory assumes that people react to incoming information by generating positive or negative thoughts. If the information stimulates a strong counterargument, it activates a negative attitude.
• According to the learning approach, people acquire information about events and objects and, in the process, learn their feelings about and behavioral responses to these objects.
• Rational actor theories suggest that people pursue goals and have preferences (attitudes) that are consistent and stable for them. Among many options, people (actors) choose the alternative that appears most attractive to them.
• According to the temporary construction theory, most individuals lack strong feelings on a wide variety of issues. However, when asked to express their opinion, they tend to engage in a response-construction process by politely choosing among the response options the pollster offers.
• The regulatory model suggests that in each moment, people make evaluations to see whether a particular situation or issue has direct significance to their well-being or social identity, or whether it is relevant to one of their values. Based on these evaluations, certain attitudes are activated.
• Broad cultural norms and traditions influence the way people view the world. Even though general moral principles of behavior and attitude formation appear universal across large social groups, interpretation of these principles may be strongly influenced by politics, ideology, and culture.

Chapter 5

• Political socialization is a lifelong process by which individuals learn political attitudes and behaviors. It is part of the broader socialization process whereby an individual becomes a member of a particular society and takes on its values and behaviors. Social and cultural conditions mediate political socialization.
• Across nations, human development and socialization take place in stages. Specialists refer to social and cultural norms, on one hand, and attitudinal and behavioral changes, on the other, associated with each life stage.
• The recency approach suggests that the closer in time a learning experience is to relevant adult opinions or decisions, the greater is its impact. The primacy approach views childhood as the most important period of political socialization; accordingly, individuals’ basic values reflect the experiences of their pre-adult years; they most likely learn political attitudes by the time they are adolescents.
• Family environment is the major context within which the individual’s development of political attitudes and values takes place. The family develops a child’s most fundamental ethnic, religious, party, and social-class identifications.
• Fundamental components of a person’s social and political identity, such as conceptions of freedom, equality, and religious and ethnic affiliations, commonly develop during adolescence. The view of the good citizen, that is, a person who takes an interest in public affairs as well as obeys the law, also forms during this period.
• Political socialization continues during adulthood, particularly in the community and the workplace. According to the persistence hypothesis, adults acquire attitudes early in life and tend to not change them later. In contrast, according to the openness hypothesis, people adjust their attitudes and behavior when situations change; these transformations can be substantial. Political socialization continues during late adulthood.
• The availability of and access to resources determine the individual’s quality of life. Quality of life may directly or indirectly affect the process of political socialization.
• An environmental approach considers political socialization as part of a broader socialization process. The developing individual cannot be separated from his or her environmental context. People constantly exchange messages within the environment, thereby transforming each other.
• Many prominent theories of socialization, such as that of Erikson and Kohlberg, interpret this process as the individual’s transition from one level to another. The person going through these stages tends to develop distinct behavioral and cognitive characteristics.
• Formal education plays a critical role in the process of political socialization. Each political system must develop supportive expectations of and behaviors among its members. Formal education serves as a conductor of such support to the younger generation.
• While interpreting data from studies on political socialization, it is crucial to look at the context in which the studies were conducted. In comparative studies, multiple factors, such as significant political events, specific circumstances, the type of political regime, the type of educational system, family values, and other cultural traditions, should be taken in consideration.

Chapter 6

• The role and function of the news media are widely debated. On the one hand, they are viewed as powerful and intrusive forces that influence the lives of millions of individuals. On the other, people’s needs, interests, and demands influence the media to follow public opinion.
• On the one hand, the consumer today can choose from many more sources of information (radio, network television, cable television, websites, newspapers) than were available 5 or 10 years ago. On the other, sameness is replacing diversity as the contemporary mass media merge; the contents of major newspapers and networks are becoming more similar.
• On one side, the viewer can clearly judge what is important and what is not. On the other, because of the way the news is produced today, the line between significant and unimportant news is blurring.
• Camouflaged under labels, such as regulations and restrictions, censorship is a powerful tool used by governments, large corporations, and the media to make certain information unavailable to the public. Political, ideological, and moral reasons are used to justify the practice of censorship.
• At least four categories of news are disseminated by the media: available, discovered, practical, and entertaining.
• Circumstances and conditions make some events newsworthy. Events are newsworthy when they have direct impact on the individual; when they become important and recognizable people are involved in them; when they give the media an opportunity to provide ratings-boosting interpretations of these events; and when they are extraordinary.
• At least two mechanisms exist whereby the news can make an impact: agenda setting and framing. Types of framing include quantitative, qualitative, priming, episodic, thematic, ideological, and political.
• Political bias in media-based event coverage may derive from the journalist’s identification with political principles and the interests of a particular party. Due to 20th-century historical and economic developments, the mainstream media in the United States are largely nonpartisan.
• Two opposing views about the media’s impact on attitudes are widely debated. According to the first view, the media have a tremendous impact on people’s opinions and behavior. According to the second view, the impact of the media on people’s opinions and decisions is grossly overestimated.
• Several factors mediate and determine the effectiveness of the media impact on the individual. Among them are direct exposure to issues, previous commitments, knowledge and education, and the communicators’ features.

Chapter 7

• Studies of the gender gap in voting choices and attitudes began in the 1960s and 1970s. The first research on gender gap in attitudes identified it as having little significance. Later, however, attention to the growing political impact of the gap gradually increased.
• Overall, according to polls, women as a group, compared to men, tend to be more egalitarian and more concerned with domestic issues, social security, safety, and violence. Women are more reluctant than men to send U.S. troops abroad and prefer stricter gun control. In general, women are less supportive of the death penalty and more tolerant toward abortion. More women than men vote during national elections. More women in the United States vote for the Democratic Party than for the Republican Party.
• Several scientific approaches explain the nature of the gender gap in attitudes. Sociological approaches share a general view that social factors cause differences between men and women. According to the sociological tradition, women and men differ in their opinions because of the different social influences on their behavior. The gender gap, therefore, is not a natural, biological construct; it is rather a product of society.
• Sociobiology, as a theoretical model, explores the ways in which biological factors affect human social activities, including socialization and opinion formation. Genetic, hormonal, and physiological factors are believed to contribute to behavior of both sexes.
• According to the socialization perspective, boys and girls are socialized to their roles as men and women. Social norms influence individual practices that become the building blocks of anticipatory socialization. Development and socialization can be viewed as a dual process. On one hand, a child’s physical growth and certain psychological skills are biologically determined. On the other hand, the developing child is closely attached to his or her social environment.
• Theories of economic inequality suggest that access to resources determines the roles of women and men play in society. These roles are unequal, and the inequality affects the attitudes, values, and behavioral patterns of men and women as social groups.
• The political significance of the gender gap in attitudes may increase in the near future with demographic changes in women’s numbers in most economically advanced democratic societies.

Chapter 8

• Social class is a concept that refers to members of a large social group who occupy the same level in the social hierarchy by sharing common relations to productive resources. Income, education, living conditions, opportunities, occupation, and access to resources link people to different social classes. Membership in a social class is associated with people’s positions in society and subsequently affects the quality of their lives and their attitudes.
• Contemporary definitions of social class or status are based on the supposition that society is stratified beyond two different classes, the middle versus the working class. Each class has several upper and lower divisions and subdivisions. The main criterion for class membership is personal income, though education and occupation also affect class situation.
• A person’s educational level, income, and interest in politics are positively correlated. Ideological orientation is not necessarily correlated with income. A significant party-identification gap exists between groups of higher and lower income; generally, the more money people make, the greater their belief that their taxes are too high. Higher-income groups tend to support foreign economic aid to a greater extent than lower income groups. The most educated express the highest level of support for foreign aid, while the least educated support it least.
• Support of affirmative action programs decreases with higher income. Income is not a substantial factor in determining people’s opinions about the capital punishment. Education does not impinge on people’s stance on capital punishment. People in the upper classes express more tolerance toward abortion than do members of other groups. The support for women’s right to abortion increases with level of education. Lower-income and low-education groups tend to take a more restrictive and authoritarian stance on deviant behavior.
• Economic conditions have a direct impact on people’s concerns and interests. These concerns are related not only to their current social position but also to changes that might occur. Perceived economic inequalities also cause people to develop particular views on whether or not these inequalities are justified. The perceived inequality between upper and lower social classes may spark members’ development of negative attitudes toward social classes or groups other than their own. Economic inequalities affect the psychological process of self-identification, which may cause individuals to seek protection from certain political ideas. Economic disparity creates informational inequality that contributes to the attitudinal gap between upper and lower classes.
• Similar work experiences may create similar interests and attitudes toward workplace issues that can be extrapolated to broader social and political problems. Opportunities to participate in workplace decisions are seen as crucial in determining social and political attitudes and types of political participation. Individuals in subservient work situations are likely to expect to be in similar relationships in their social life and politics. On the other hand, people who participate in a wide range of social decisions at work are likely to extend these activities into social and political fields.

Chapter 9

• Culture is a set of attitudes, behaviors, and symbols generally shared by a large group of people and communicated from one generation to the next. No society is culturally homogeneous. No two cultures are entirely similar, and none are entirely dissimilar. Each cultural cluster can show significant variation.
• Race is usually defined as a large group of people distinguished by biologically transmitted physical characteristics. Ethnicity usually indicates an individual’s cultural heritage, the experience shared by this person and others with a common ancestral origin, language, traditions, and, often, religion and geographic territory. Nationality is commonly defined as a person’s identification with a geographical territory unified as an independent state recognized by other countries.
• The ethnic, religious, and racial groups in the United States express both similarity and difference in attitudes. Most U.S. minority groups tend to support the Democratic Party. Hispanics may differ somewhat, but the majority still tend to vote Democratic. The exceptions are Asian Americans and Muslim Americans, who are evenly split between Democratic and Republican preferences.
• Several approaches allow researchers to examine and explain why factors such as religion and ethnicity affect people’s views. From the social power standpoint, availability of and access to resources are the most significant factors influencing opinions. Domination and hierarchy determine the way groups see society and each other. In other words, not race or ethnicity but association with a certain social class determines major behavioral and attitudinal differences among groups.
• From the cultural identity standpoint, not resources but rather the strength and content of cultural identity are the most significant factors affecting behavior and attitudes. Members of religious, ethnic, national, and other kinds of groups tend to develop their sense of collective identity on the basis of two kinds of perceptions: shared features within the group and differences between these features and those of other social clusters. This collective identity gives members of the group a sense of uniqueness.
• From the cultural prejudice standpoint, people form stable negative perceptions of and attribute negative characteristics to other cultural groups. Prejudice is commonly understood as an irrational feeling that can be reduced by a variety of means, including education. As a rule, people who are more educated are less prejudiced than those who are less educated.
• When examining the views of racial, ethnic, or religious groups, it is important to learn about the racial and ethnic composition of the region in which the survey was conducted. Another area of concern is the impact of generalizations and labeling on survey results. Easily identifiable features, such as race, ethnicity, and religion, are simple explanatory causes of people’s attitudes. A person’s ethnic or religious identity does not automatically indicate how she will express her views or vote.

Chapter 10

• Voting is both a simple and a complex behavioral act influenced by a wide variety of economic, social, and psychological factors. There are at least two major types of voting: elections and referenda. Voting is preceded by campaigning, a deliberate and systematic effort to win an election.
• Several factors motivate individuals to vote: socioeconomic status; knowledge of social and political realities; legal and institutional features such as mandatory electoral laws and voter registration requirements; single- versus multiseat electoral formats; personality characteristics; cognitive and moral factors.
• Low electoral turnout can be viewed in at least two ways. In most democracies, electoral turnout has tended to decrease over the past 50 years. Some observers describe this phenomenon as a sign of alienation, or the individual’s disengagement and withdrawal from contemporary society. Critics of this view argue that low turnout is a normal phenomenon that does not indicate that inaction smothers democracy. The historic emphasis on individualism and suspicion of government is part of the Western tradition in general and the American tradition in particular, especially when society is not in crisis. Among the many suggestions for increasing electoral turnout are online voting and dropping registration requirements.
• The voting choice can be a combination of issue-oriented, candidate-oriented, or party-oriented decisions. People tend to evaluate political candidates both prospectively and retrospectively. Protest voting is based on a voter’s desire to express disagreement and disappointment with a particular candidate or proposed policies. Prejudiced voting is rooted in negative prejudgment of a candidate or policy.
• Political ideologies are categorized along several dimensions, among them the scope, sources, and direction of social change; attitudes about property rights; and attitudes about individual rights. Most commonly, ideologies are divided into three categories: liberal, moderate, and conservative (plus radical and reactionary). There are many cross-national similarities, but also some differences, in the ways people understand and interpret conservative and liberal beliefs and values.
• Overall, conservatism-liberalism is not a dichotomous but rather a continuous variable. In the United States, since 1964, moderates tend to represent the largest ideological group. In general, fewer Americans considered themselves liberal than conservative. No less than one in six and no more than one in four Americans called themselves liberals in the end of the 20th century. Since the 1980s, almost every third American has identified as conservative.
• Polls give an approximate evaluation of party identification. People’s understanding and reporting of their association with or membership in political parties across the country differ. Over the past 15 years, slightly less than 30 percent of registered voters were registered Republicans and slightly more than 30 percent were registered Democrats. The rate at which voters registered as independents grew significantly, from 20 percent in the 1960s to 30 percent in the 1970s and 1980s. The proportions were even higher in the 1990s and the 2000s.
• Partisanship can be a form of self-identity that may contain gender, professional, ethnic, religious, and other psychological components. According to the rational voter view, people vote because they are capable of assessing which party should provide greater benefits to them. According to another view, voters are both partisan and rational; they form political beliefs and then update their attitudes as new information becomes available.
• Polls conducted by independent sources are more reliable than sponsored polls partly because independents are expected to be nonpartisan. Self-identification in political and ideological terms is imprecise. Many individuals inaccurately recall whether or not they voted in a particular election. Some people overreport their voting, saying they voted in a particular election when they did not. In sum, when analyzing studies that explain the reasons for partisan voting, look for multiple causes.

Chapter 11

• Americans express a range of opinions about domestic topics, such as abortion and education. Arguments of both pro-life and pro-choice advocates focus on the question of when life begins. People on the pro-life side argue that because human life begins at conception, all abortion is murder. People on the prochoice side maintain that determining when life begins is a matter of debate. Supporters of pro-life arguments feel that women do not have the right to decide whether their unborn children should live or die. Backers of the prochoice position argue that an embryo is a part of the woman’s body and that she should be free to decide what to do with it.
• Approximately one-third of Americans today believe that abortion should be legal under any circumstances. Around 50 percent of respondents believe abortion should be legal under limited circumstances such as danger to the life of the mother. The remaining 20 percent want abortion illegal under all circumstances. The pro-choice position is mostly endorsed by residents of large metropolitan areas, the better educated, the moderately religious, and political liberals. Pro-life supporters are likely to be religious, politically conservative, rural residents, and older.
• Supporters of affirmative action believe this policy provides qualified people with a better opportunity to succeed in education, employment, and business. In contrast, one of the main arguments against affirmative action is that this policy is a form of reverse discrimination; in the attempt to remedy past injustice, white men were singled out as targets of new forms of bias. Attitudes about affirmative action are, in general, evenly split between opponents and proponents. Overall, in surveys conducted since 1980, notable majorities of Americans endorse equality of opportunity and the elimination of discrimination in all spheres of social life.
• Two clusters of opinions about crime exist. Proponents of the first view believe crime is inevitable and the only effective remedies are tough laws and their unremitting enforcement. Proponents of the second view consider crime, in most forms, the result of social problems. As long as society does not solve these problems, people will have to deal with crime and other forms of deviant behavior. Most Americans believe the criminal justice system in this country is not tough enough in its handling of crime. At the same time, most Americans believe in crime prevention and rehabilitation programs.
• Overall, supporters of the death penalty argue this punishment is constitutional, effective as a deterrent to crime, and supported by public opinion. Opponents reply that the death penalty is unfair, ineffective, unconstitutional, and cruel and unusual punishment. When answering the general question “Do you favor or oppose the death penalty for persons convicted of premeditated murder?” more than 60 percent of Americans favor capital punishment.
• Generally, in response to open-ended survey questions, people rank education as one of the top issues. Despite criticism, people express predominantly positive opinions about the educational system in the United States. In surveys, most people express the belief that the federal government should ensure at least a minimum level of spending per pupil in public schools. Nearly half say government should ensure an equivalent level of spending for all students. As a whole, support for increased spending is high. The vast majority of Americans endorse racial integration in schools, but most people oppose deliberate integration policies such as busing.
• Most Americans do not support laws that would prohibit private ownership of firearms, yet the majority favor stricter gun laws and support the federal government requiring people to get a license in order to own a handgun legally. Support of gun owners’ rights is stronger in rural areas than in cities. In general, men, people with postgraduate degrees, and Republican voters support less government intervention in gun ownership than do women, the less educated, and Democratic voters. The strongest support for prohibitive actions against firearms, 60 percent, was registered in 1959. The highest level of opposition, 65 percent, was registered in 1980; 31 percent supported gun control.
• Immigration is one of the most important social and political issues American society faces. Although most Americans remain pro-immigration, many citizens express strong and persistent anti-immigration sentiment. Many argue the problem is not immigration itself but rather the high level of immigration. Most Americans hold negative opinions about undocumented aliens. Only one in five people believe undocumented immigrants are entitled to the same benefits and privileges as U.S. citizens are. A majority believe that immigrants should be expected to live up to their responsibilities as American citizens.
• The majority of Americans support more active governmental involvement in the solution of environmental problems. Opinions are split on many environmental issues. A majority of Americans believe the U.S. healthcare system needs major or fundamental changes. Some polls reveal strong support for the idea that the government should guarantee medical coverage for all Americans. According to surveys, the two issues Americans most want to see addressed are expanding health insurance coverage to more Americans and reining in healthcare costs. Americans tend to express positive views about new medical procedures and methods, and are concerned about medical privacy.
• Americans traditionally maintain ambivalent attitudes about the institution of government. On one hand, most people agree capable government means freedom, stability, and prosperity. On the other hand, people do not want government to become too powerful or to intrude on their daily lives. The public wants public officials to spend less but still assigns them a long list of responsibilities. Most Americans over the past several decades approve of the way the Supreme Court handles its job. Congress typically receives lower approval ratings than do presidents. Most people trust the military.
• Americans have periodically supported and opposed the idea of a national identity card. At the same time, public sentiment in the polls shows that most Americans are concerned about privacy and do not want their rights restricted or limited even in the pursuit of terrorists.

Chapter 12

• Americans are generally less interested in foreign affairs, except during international crises or when domestic and international issues significantly overlap. Although critics have called public opinion about foreign affairs unknowledgeable, unstable, moody, and of little influence, today, opinion about foreign policy is recognized as possessing relatively high stability. Knowledge about foreign affairs was slightly higher than knowledge about domestic topics, such as politicians, institutions, and public affairs.
• There are three types of opinion about international affairs. The first is the public mood or climate of opinion. The second is conveyed by approval or disapproval of the president’s handling of foreign affairs. The third type is a set of attitudes about specific foreign policy options.
• From the beginning of modern polling, Americans have held relatively stable attitudes about foreign countries and established their consistent evaluations, positive or negative, of their governments. Two major factors determine the general public’s views on foreign nations: security and ideology. These are often but not always inseparable. Government policy also affects attitudes.
• Key issues in foreign policy attitudes include whether or not the United States should take an active role in the world, intervene in foreign conflicts, develop diplomatic agreements with other nations, and send humanitarian aid abroad. Since polling began, the preferences of Americans have shifted between more and less active roles, between support for foreign intervention and nonintervention. Before World War II, public opinion was mostly isolationist. During the Cold War, it became more interventionist. Opinions were more split at the end and after the Vietnam War. More recently, attitudes have become more activist again.
• Americans tend to overestimate how much the United States gives in aid to foreign countries. Opinions are typically split on whether and how much foreign aid the United States should provide, though favoring foreign trade.
• The climate of opinion and presidential approval affects the limits within foreign policy operates. Public opinion provides guidelines for elites within which to set policy. As a proxy for the potential outcome of elections, it influences public policy. In the final analysis, public opinion does not set policy, but rather sets the range or limits of policy.
• Americans today are generally willing to intervene in trouble spots around the world, depending on the perceived costs such as expenses and casualties and the likelihood of success. Terrorism has increased the willingness of U.S. public to support military actions abroad. Foreign policy attitudes differ by events, question wordings, background, and political orientations.