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Path: utzoo!watmath!watdcsu!mackie
From: mackie@watdcsu.UUCP (D. Mulholland )
Newsgroups: can.politics
Subject: public opinion polls
Message-ID: <483@watdcsu.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 5-Oct-84 11:22:18 EDT
Article-I.D.: watdcsu.483
Posted: Fri Oct  5 11:22:18 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 6-Oct-84 05:21:37 EDT
Organization: U of Waterloo, Ontario
Lines: 27

<"...I ate it up, and spit it out...">

Mark:
    Concerning your recent statement in the capital punishment debate:

>It has been shown that polls have little effect on public opinion. They
>merely happen to report on what that opinion is at the time.

    This is news to me. I had understood that studies of this subject
usually report no evidence that reporting poll results influences
the outcome of a subsequent vote. The American networks regularly use
these results to quash criticism of their exit polling and election
coverage. There is a big difference between "no evidence..." and "little
effect...". Can you find me the study/studies that you refer to? Perhaps
this is true for the issues of capital punishment and abortion, but I
don't believe it for a second on most political questions. Remember
the Joe Clark effect? Furthermore, I think this has rather far reaching
implications to topics such as the pornography/censorship debate.

        Doug

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