Political Science 21A: Where does public opinion come from?

Political Science 21A: Question Set #5
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Political Science 21A: Question Set #5
Where does public opinion come from? B) Discuss its cognitive foundations and how socialization produces these. C) How do most people organize their thoughts about political issues? D) Why might public opinion be collectively rational? E) Why might it fail to be rational?
Public opinions mainly come from three main factors, which are personal interest, schemas, and effective leadership. To begin with, opinion from public opinion means that people will respond to different issues according to how they affect or impact them. On the other hand, a schema is an approach whereby public opinion is based on people's beliefs and values, which they use to provide opinions and views on particular subjects. On its part, effective leadership is a concept whereby leaders establish processes and policies they think are best for the nation and citizens. In essence, all these factors tend to result from the concept of socialization (Stimson, 2018). The source of political socialization can be attributed to elements such as family, school, religion, and political parties, which are essential cognitive foundations for public opinion (Stimson, 2018). In most cases, family and schools are the main elements that tend to impact people significantly. For example, they tend to learn basic political values & loyalty to particular political parties from their parents from a very young age. On the other hand, schools influence a person's political thoughts in that they are exposed to various political beliefs in classes or interacting with friends and mentors. In some cases, religion can also influence one’s thoughts on political issues depending on the extent of a religious movement’s involvement in political issues (Stimson, 2018). With time and age, one is able to embrace political tolerance as they continue interacting with conflicting information during political socialization. For example, in the U.S., it is common for low-income people, minority communities, and women to affiliate themselves with the Democratic Party. Most of the time, public opinions are not rational, given that political socialization is characterized by biasness and personal interests. In this sense, these aspects tend to make public opinions from being rational.
Describe important differences between focus groups, non-scientific polling, and scientific polling, including their benefits and drawbacks. B) Which is best for accurately measuring public opinion? Why? C) Why might polls be less accurate than we hope for?
Focus groups refer to a situation whereby a small group of individuals from diverse demographics is made together to discuss an in-depth discussion. Researchers study the reactions of the group towards an idea, opinion, or concept to evaluate and identify how the general public would react. In most cases, focus groups are used to evaluate markets and conduct political analysis (Atkeson & Alvarez, 2018). Furthermore, focus groups are used to study how various populations interact with others. One of the advantages of the approach is that it is cheap and easy to collect opinions and views. The drawback of foc...