End of the Semester

Well my public opinion class is coming to an end. Classes are over and my final project is to compile a portfolio on everything I have completed this semester. I just wanted to post one last time and say that I have learned a lot about public opinion from my course, especially regarding the issue I have focused on all semester, embryonic stem cell research. I have learned that this issue has a very short history and that many people express their opinions in polls even when they do not really know much about an issue (I include myself as one who expresses opinions on issues I think I know about and really don't!). I have learned a lot about my issue not only with polling on the issue, but factual information I did not know before I took this class. For instance, I never knew the first embryonic stem cell was extracted in 1998 and that polls did not begin centering on this issue until 2001. I also will admit that I did not understand Bush's policy on banning federal funding for the research, which is my own fault because I just listened to one piece of the information and based my opinion on that. Overall, I have to say that I would not depend solely on public opinion polls to show how America feels about an issue, but I think expressing our opinions, whether formed from facts or misinformation, is vital in a democratic society that embraces our first Amendment right of the freedom of speech.

Alternative to Polling

My final paper in my public opinion class is to discuss an alternative means of finding public opinion. The author of the book we are focusing on for this unit, James Fishkin, makes the argument that people's responses to polling questions are different when they all meet and discuss the issue. This allows all respondents to be informed and make decisions based on that knowledge. While this would not allow a scientific sample, it is interesting and affirms that respondents will answer polling questions when they don't know about an issue. Fishkin also argues that public opinion should not be all that important to politics when the results of the polls are based on answers by uninformed people. He discusses something called deliberative polling, which allows respondents to discuss the issue and then answer questions regarding their opinions.
My paper will center on this method. My idea is to recruit respondents who can gain internet access and allow them to discuss the issue in an online discussion or chat room. This allows respondents the opportunity to voice their opinions in privacy. I know that everyone does not have Internet access, however; my idea is to recruit respondents through the mail and allow them time to find access to a computer with Internet. For example, people may have friends who have the Internet, the library has the Internet, and some people have Internet at work. If respondents can gain this access, the issue of not having the Internet decreases. With the Internet being available worldwide, this allows a substantially large amount of people to participate. Many people are on the Internet or their computers throughout the day which can encourage participation. In order to access the chat room or discussion, there would be questions they have to answer first in order to see where they stand on the issue prior to discussing it. At the end, they would re-answer the questions to show how much public opinion changed due to their deliberations. This is just the beginning of my brainstorming and I will post more as I write this paper.

Focus Group

Yesterday I conducted a focus group about stem cell research, more specifically embryonic stem cell research. The purpose was to discover the opinions of the participants. All participants were volunteers and said they all had an opinion on the issue. There were a total of 7 participants from my community. I asked them all first with a show of hands who was for or against this research. I was happy to see that the group was pretty split with 4 being in favor and 3 being opposed. All those in favor maintained their position when the focus group was finished with their discussion while 1 person who was opposed actually changed his mind because he stated that he thought he knew what embryonic stem cell research was but through the focus group, realized it was something completely different and changed his position to favoring the research. The other 2 who were opposed were still in opposition whenthe group finished. While I will be writing a 15-20 page paper on the focus group's discussion, I will let viewers know some things that were said although not everything will be revealed here. First, I was quite pleased that everyone participated and was respectful. They all were interested in learning exactly what the research is regardless of whether or not they changed their minds at the end. All 7 had some idea as to what the research is and what it is used for. Even if part of their answer was incorrect, they still had some correct idea. For example, 2 people knew stem cells were extracted from fertilized eggs, however, they both believed that the cells were extracted from an egg that was already fertilized inside a woman. When asked the question as to what the difference was between embryonic stem cells and human stem cells, one person believed that human stem cells are used to find cures for people who have diseases while embryonic stem cells could only be used for pre-birth deformities that have been discovered during pregnancy. It was interesting to watch people who knew more about the issue to correct those who were misinformed. For instance, one woman said that you cannot help an embryo because if it had deformities, it would abort itself (miscarriage). All in all, the 2 who were in opposition really opposed embryonic stem cell research, but approved of human stem cell research.

Public Approval/Trust Relating to Embryonic Stem Cell Research

In class yesterday, we discussed political trust and public approval. While the issue I am working on is relatively new (within the last decade), I have seen a few polling questions that I believe relate to my topic and what we discussed in class. For example, when Obama overturned the ban, the public was asked if they approve or disapprove of his decision. More than 1/2 approved. Also when questions ask if federal funding should be set aside for this research, I believe it shows political trust because the public is depending on the government to make the decisions about funding according to public opinion. When polls first began on this issue in 2001, those who favored federal funding was a little less than 1/2 while that increased to more than 1/2 by 2009. There has not been a large discrepency in numbers since 2001 but when this first became publicized in politics, Bush made a policy regardless of public opinion. I know that public opinion is important in politics and can change policies in government, but based on the findings of my research on polling, it appears that the public is not the ultimate decision maker. Rather, it seems that the next political candidate will use what the previous political did as the opposite of what s/he will do. However, as I said this issue is new and it will take a few more decades of polling and government policies to confirm any trends and changes regarding this issue. Also, I did find a question from 2004 during the presidential elections that asked respondents if Bush's view and Kerry's view on stem cell research would influence who they vote for and 40% said it would not.

Embryonic Stem Cell Research Becomes a Political Issue in 1999

As I have been researching the history of my topic and polling I found that embryonic stem cell research did not really become a political issue until 1999. Scientists and the National Institute for Health looked for funding from the federal government to advance their research. During the decade of trying to extract stem cells from human embryos, the research was privately funded. In 1999 when they went to the federal government there had already been a ban in place on funding any kind of research using human embryos (this may have had a lot to do with the cloning issue). Either way, Clinton and other government officials decided the moral cost did not outweigh the potential benefits and granted funding. Still at this time, polls were not conducted on the issue, rather it was just a political issue that really hadn't caught people's attention yet. The main people who paid attention were opponents, groups who were opposed to Roe v. Wade. They believe life begins at conception which is the basis of their argument. In this type of research, the egg must be fertilized and after one week, the cells are extracted and the potential for life no longer exists. Having to fertilize the egg is ultimately where the controversy arises. At the beginning, news reports treated this issue like a breakthrough in science and pretty much reported on the facts. Controversy wasn't really presented in the media other than that it may stir up debates. Polling on the issue began in 2001 when the political basis of the issue was brought to the forefront of the media. When the federal government began debating the issue polls began and continued from there. Bush did not change government restrictions until after the polling began and despite a majority in favor of the research, he made his decision which seems to be based on personal feelings rather than that of the public. Researching the historical arena of this issue is quite short, but it is very interesting to look at an issue that began during my lifetime which helps me understand more where the country stood regarding this issue.

Poll Question from 2000

I forgot to post the link of the question from 2000 so here it is:

http://webapps.ropercenter.uconn.edu/cfide/psearch_test/webroot/multquestion_view.cfm?QSTN_ID2=431859&qid=+431859&pid=4&ccid=0&x=82&y=9

Poll Question from 2000

I posted yesterday that the earliest poll I found concerning the issue of embryonic stem cell research was from 2001. However, I found a polling question from 2000 about stem cell research from the Kaiser Foundation. The foundation administered a poll to find out what important issues the public was following in the media. They do these polls in order to help the media know what to report and how much information they are conveying to the public. The question was asking respondents how closely they have followed news coverage of stem cell research. 56% reported they were not at all closely following the story. This may have also been asked due to the upcoming presidential election in 2000. Then in 2001, President Bush banned federal funding for stem cell research and it became a hot topic in the media and among the public. In 2001 poll organizations began asking the public their opinions regarding the issue. I also found out through research that this issue does not have a long history in the polls because stem cells were not extracted from embryos until 1998 when a man named James Thompson from Wisconsin University successfully did this. He is the head of the regenerative biology lab there. His website is posted below.

http://stemcells.wisc.edu/faculty/thomson.html

Research Expectations

Today I am going to write about what I expect to find in my research regarding the history of stem cell research polling and public opinion. First, I don't really expect to find a long historical background seeing as though 2001 seems to be the first poll I have found. I do expect to find changes in question wording as new information became available to poll organizations regarding this issue. I also expect to see stability because when I did my first class presentation, I found that opinions from the polls remained stable between 2001 and 2009 give or take a few percentage points. Concerning frequency of polling this issue, I anticipate more polls beginning in 2001, the same year Bush banned funding and the polls began (as far as I know now) and in 2009 when Obama overturned the ban. It seems that these were the times the topic was salient because politics were deciding on policies regarding the research. While I know polls have been conducted at other times between 2001 and 2009, I expect to find that the frequency calmed down. Regarding media coverage, I anticipate it was most prominent during the same times and possibly when a possible breakthrough with the research came to light. However, since it doesn't seem that the media focused too much on the difference between embryonic and adult stem cell research, I expect to find most media information regarding embryonic stem cells. Since this topic is new within this decade, I do not anticipate too many changes in media reporting especially since poll results remained stable. Any trends and changes may be a byproduct of the changes in policies the presidents made and any new breakthroughs in the research. This is just information I expect to find, not necessarily information I have found.

Is the Public Misinformed?

My class is beginning a new unit in which we are required to research and write a paper on the history of polls regarding our issue. As you know, my issue is embryonic stem cell research which is an issue that is a lot more recent than I actually knew. While I just began my research, so far the earliest poll I have found is from 2001! However, even more interesting, is that I found something out about this issue that I never understood (a misinformed citizen with an opinion!!). I don't know how many people actually understand this (or it could just be me) but when Bush banned federal funding for this research, he never took away ALL the funding. His policy centered around the science that kills embryos for this research. In other words, he never cut funding for research on stem cells that had already been extracted from embryos, just future embryos that had not been touched yet. While this does not change my opinion on this issue, it is a very important piece of information that may change others' opinions. I thought Bush banned all types of funding not just selected types. This just goes to show that ordinary people who think they know something don't really know something (myself included). This information came from the Gallup Organization's publication, "The Gallup Poll - Public Opinion 2001."

Media Bias

I found an article about media bias pertaining to stem cell research. The author is an investigative journalist who wrote that the media is biased in reporting adult stem cell research versus embryonic stem cell research. He writes that the public is more interested in hearing about embryonic stem cell research and the media chooses this topic as being "newsworthy." He reports that the public is misinformed about the truth pertaining to all stem cell research and that even scientists do not report on adult stem cell research because it is not what the public wants to hear about. The website has a bio of the author and he seems to be a credible source. His article is intersting in regards to the media and public opinion:

<"http://www.fumento.com/biotech/stem-cell-story.html">

Polling and the Media

In class yesterday, we discussed polling and the media including the criticisms of media reports on polls. To start, we discussed how a source supplies the media (which is the medium) with information, and then that information is reported to the audience (public). This is a vital process for a republican democracy that embraces free communication. However, an issue rises when information that is passed on to the audience is bias and unreliable. I found a source that lobbys in Washington and provides information to the media regarding the topic I am working on (embryonic stem cell research). The National Right to Life Organization is a biased source that is one-sided. The organization was founded upon the Supreme Court decision of Roe v. Wade and has been fighting for their beliefs ever since (which is not the issue I am contesting since we all have freedom of speech). The issue that matters here is that in comparison to other polls like the Gallup and ABC news, their results are quite different. They found that 52% of Americans oppose federal funding while 36% support it which is a lot different from what other polling organizations have found. Their website documents that their poll included standards that are necessary to obtain reliable results. However, it just seems pretty inaccurate when other credible polls have found opposite results making their poll questionable. It is only questionable because of stability that has been found from other polls.
The point that I am trying to make here is that this group is a media source that seems to be providing biased results. While it is the media's responsibility to investigate their sources before labeling results reliable and fair, groups like this can easily create a media "spin." The website below is directly linked to the organization and its story on embryonic stem cell research. It also includes some polling questions which you will be able to notice are leading questions.

http://www.nrlc.org/killing_embryos/USCCBPoll051605.html

Poll Administration

In class today we discussed administering polls. In my poll design for class I decided to use self-administered polls through the mail. This is the cheapest way of administering a poll. It also provides participants with the opportunity to take their time, read through the poll before answering the questions (which decreases the negative aspects of question order), and they can answer the questions in their own privacy which encourages and supports confidentiality. Despite these positive areas in self-administered polling, there are some drawbacks. The number one issue is response rate. The response rate for self-administered polls received through the mail is quite low which drastically affects the poll and can even prevent the poll from being publicly announced. In an attempt to receive a higher response rate with this poll, I am designing the poll to be administered to more people than is needed for a representative sample. By doing this, the chance of receiving enough completed polls of a representative sample increases. Another drawback in a self-administered poll in regards to my poll design is that there may not be an up-to-date list of all of the U.S. population, which is where I want my representative sample to come from. However, I feel that this problem is not as big of an issue as it would be with telephone polling. This is because I think there is more of a chance to reach people today through the mail versus through a landline since so many people today rely solely on cellular phones. I am not saying that telephone polling does not work, when in fact it does. It is just that since the results of my poll are not rushed seeing as though the issue of embryonic stem cell research is not salient at the moment, a mailed self-administered poll may work better.

Issues with Truthful Respondents in Polls

Yesterday in class, we discussed two important concepts that relate to "nonattitudes" in public opinion polling: social desirability response bias and insincerity. Social desirability response bias refers to the idea that people actually have an opinion on the question they are being asked, but they lie about their answer in giving one that is socially desirable. Insincerity is similar in which people have an opinion, yet for various reasons, they report one that is different from their own whether it is socially desirable or not. This can definitely cause issues in polling by providing inaccurate results to the public. I have been looking at various polls on my issue and it seems that they all provide similar results.

One thing that may show a social desirability response bias that I found is when a certain organization is administering a poll. For instance, it seems that those who are Catholics are opposed to embryonic stem cell research. A poll was sponsored by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and it showed that more people were in opposition to federal funding of embryonic stem cell research than those who favor it. Based on other polls administered by credible polling organizations such as Gallup and CBS news, the results are opposite. While the website I found does not show the poll, it does show that perhaps people were told who was sponsoring the poll. The point here is that if people know a Catholic group is administering the poll, it is possible that a social desirability response bias and/or insincerities may result. The poll itself claims it was representative and what changed the results was the option of human stem cell research versus embryonic stem cell research. However, the Gallup poll that I posted about earlier does in fact ask the question using the term "embryonic" and not just stem cells. This is the only information regarding different polling results that I have found so far.

As for my poll design, I will focus on a national representative sample, as did other credible organizations. I will not worry about social desirability response bias or insincerities other than the issue that President Obama supports embryonic stem cell research. In order to try to minimize any opinions based on supporting the president, I will make sure that my questions will not provide any information that shows political support one way or the other. If anyone is interested in reading the article about the Catholic sponsored poll, the link is below:

http://www.lifenews.com/bio434.html

Gallup poll:

http://www.gallup.com/poll/116485/Majority-Americans-Likely-Support-Stem-Cell-Decision.aspx

Are There "Nonattitudes" Reflected in Embryonic Stem Cell Research?

Yesterday my public opinions class discussed "nonattitudes" in public opinion polls. This concept means that people may not have an opinion about an issue for various reasons but respond in polls as if they do. While designing my poll, I need to consider whether I believe "nonattitudes" may be a problem and if so, what to do about it. It doesn't seem like "nonattitudes" would be an issue in polls regarding embryonic stem cell research mainly since opinions have been stable throughout the years and although this issue isn't really debated in the news at the moment, it is still a popular controversy. One issue I think may be a problem is that some people don't really understand what exactly stem cell research is and why there is such a debate. I have spoken to a few people on the issue and some admitted that they really don't know what the research entails yet they would still give an opinion if asked whether or not they support it. This seems to be the only problem I may have to think about regarding "nonattitudes" as I design my poll. A screening question I can use would be whether or not you have an opinion about the topic and maybe ask why they are in favor or in opposition and then continue with the survey if they have an opinion. I haven't really come across a poll on this issue that seems to reflect "nonattitudes." If I decide I need to ask this question to weed out those who don't really have an opinion it is something that will definitely be worth while. I will also add the option of "don't know" or "no opinion" in the questions that need that as an option because I wouldn't want anyone to feel forced to make a decision regarding a question they really don't have an opinion on which would result in results that are not accurate. As I continue to brainstorm and write out my poll design I will post more information regarding the project.

Sampling Methods

As we begin to construct our poll designs, my class discussed sampling methods that should and shouldn't be used. For instance, convenient sampling is not scientific and results are likely to be skewed. As I am contemplating on which method I will use in my poll design I wanted to provide a link for readers that shows an example of how to get the results poll designers are looking for. The clip shows how to get a "balanced" sample using questions that will lead to the ultimate question in which the poll is looking to report on:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yhN1IDLQjo

Poll Displaying Demographics

Hello everyone. I found a poll that shows demographic factors on the issue of embryonic stem cell research. Although the poll is from 2005, it is from a credible source. I thought it was worth posting in order to help readers gain an understanding of what groups of people oppose the research compared to the national population. While 58% approve of the research according to this poll (which is the same results as the Gallop Organization from a previous post), this poll shows which groups of Americans are in opposition. The groups are conservatives, white Evangelicalists, and those who attend services weekly. All 3 groups have a higher disapproval rate than approval by 45%-53%. The poll consisted of 938 participants and was a random sample from the U.S. population:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/05/24/opinion/polls/main697546.shtml

"Pseudopolls"

Hello everyone! In class we discussed the issue of "pseudopolls" which are fake or unscientific polls. These types of polls lead to bias results which pave the way to public skepticism. Those who participate are not part of a random sample and they do not represent public opinion. These are polls that can be taken online or even by text messaging the answer to a question to the people who are reporting on the poll and the results. The key here is that people are choosing to participate and chances are they are responding to a poll posted by a group who holds their views.
I found such a poll on embryonic stem cell research. The poll is posted on a website entitled "WorldNetDaily." There a few obvious issues with this poll. Not only is it an online poll in which anyone can vote (and you must sign up for an account in order to vote), but there are 22 answers to choose from for 1 question ("What's your view on embryonic stem cell research?") in which participants can cast their vote. The website does however only allow participants to vote 1 time but it does not let people know that this is an unscientific poll. Also, once a person has voted, s/he can view the results of the poll. I casted a vote and viewed the results which displays the most bias results I have yet to see in any poll relating to this issue. This is obviously a website for those in oppostition to embryonic stem cell research because about 99% of the votes are answers that in some form represent opposition to the issue at hand.
To compare these results with the poll I posted earlier from the Gallop Organization, which is a credible polling organization, less than 50% were opposed to embryonic stem cell research. This just proves the point that this poll is a "pseudopoll." Also, if you are bored one day, you can access polls from their website and start voting on many issues. It is quite humorous so if you feel like laughing, go to the website and scroll down below the article to begin voting, but remember you must create an account in order to cast your vote:

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=86957

Stem Cell Facts

Hello. I was researching information about stem cell research and I realized that some may not quite understand why there is even a debate about embryonic stem cell research, especially since human adults have stem cells which would be more acceptable to use in experiments/research. So I found a website that provides a lot of information if anyone wants to distinguish the difference between the two areas of research. The website explains what stem cells are and how embryonic stem cells differ from adult stem cells. If anyone is interested in finding out the difference or may not even understand why stem cells are so important to some people for medical research, please visit this website that I found which provides factual information and does not display opinions. Since I am working on this issue for a public opinion class I will be posting more on public opinion regarding this topic but for now I thought it might be important for readers to understand the facts surrounding this issue. The website is from the National Institute of Health and may be helpful:

http://stemcells.nih.gov/info/basics/basics3.asp

Gallup Poll

Hello everyone. I am posting in order to share with you information about the poll I will be presenting to my class. As some of you may know, President Obama overturned Bush's decision that banned federal funding for stem cell research. The poll I found reflects Americans' opinions of government regulations on the issue. Bush banned stem cell research in 2001. Obama overturned this in March 2009. The poll that I am presenting was conducted February 20-22, 2009. The reason for the poll was to determine if Americans would be likely to support Obama's decision when the issue was brought up in his administration and the news. The poll was obtained through telephone interviews either by landlines or cellular phones. 1,013 national adults aged 18 and older participated. The sampling error was projected to be at +/- 3 percentage points.

The question that was asked was: "As you may know, the federal government currently provides very limited funding for medical research that uses stem cells obtained from human embryos. Which would you prefer the government to do . . . . . ?

"Place no restrictions on government funding" 14%
"Ease current restrictions to allow more research" 38%
"Keep current restrictions" 22%
"Not fund at all" 19%

I added the poll results at the end of each option. Overall, more Americans feel that the government should at least ease the current restrictions placed on stem cell research. According to the Gallup Organization, the percentage of Americans favoring at least some federal funding has remained stable since 2004 with over 50% of Americans in favor of the issue. In fact, the lowest finding was this year with 52% of Americans in favor of federal funding for stem cell research. Something interesting that is shown in this poll is that few Americans favor extreme positions such as no restrictions and no funding at all.

This is just the beginning of my research on Americans' opinion on stem cell research. I chose this poll first because it pertains to the most recent issue concerning this topic which is Obama overturning what has been in place for 8 years. I will continue to post as I find more information. Here is the link where I found the poll if anyone is interested in learning about it:

http://www.gallup.com/poll/116485/Majority-Americans-Likely-Support-Stem-Cell-Decision.aspx

Introduction

Hello. My name is Brandi. I am a senior at Illinois State University majoring in criminal justice. I have enrolled in a political science class focusing on public opinion. I set up this blog for my class and will be discussing a topic of my choice. I chose to focus on how the public feels about embryonic stem cell research not only because it is a very important topic for politics, but also because it is important for many people regardless of their opinion. Some feel this type of research should not be permitted due to various reasons such as religious beliefs while others feel the research is necessary for their own reasons such as it may help find a cure for a disease. I will continue to post here and my next post will focus on a public opinion poll I will be presenting to my class. Feel free to post any comments you may have and remember that everyone is entitled to their opinion!