Can AI Stand In for Human Survey-Takers? Not Really
Synthetic surveys using digital twins do a poor job estimating the public mood and are especially error-prone for some subgroups, including Republicans and Black adults.
Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
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Video: Can we still trust polls?
Recent events – including the 2016 presidential election and Brexit – have rattled public confidence in polls. But this video explains why well-designed polls can still be trusted and remain an important way to measure public opinion.
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Can we still trust polls?
Donald Trump’s victory in 2016 and the U.K. “Brexit” decision rattled public confidence in polls. Our new video explains why well-designed polls can be trusted.
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Q&A: How Pew Research Center identified bots on Twitter
For a recent study on automated accounts and Twitter, we had to answer a fundamental question: Which accounts are bots and which accounts aren’t? Read a Q&A with Stefan Wojcik, a computational social scientist at the Center and one of the report’s authors, on how he and his colleagues navigated this question.
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5 things to know about bots on Twitter
Read key findings and watch a video about our new study on how bot accounts affect the mix of content on Twitter.
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Bots in the Twittersphere
An estimated two-thirds of tweeted links to popular websites are posted by automated accounts – not human beings.
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What to know about the citizenship question the Census Bureau is planning to ask in 2020
The U.S. Census Bureau is planning to ask everyone living in the United States whether they are citizens when it conducts its next decennial census in 2020.
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Methods 101: Survey Question Wording
The second video in Pew Research Center’s Methods 101 series helps explain question wording – a concept at the center of sound public opinion survey research – and why it’s important.
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How do you write survey questions that accurately measure public opinion?
In the second video from our Methods 101 series, we’re tackling why question wording is so important in public opinion surveys.
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Video Explainer: Understanding survey question wording
The second video in Pew Research Center’s “Methods 101” series helps explain question wording – a concept at the center of sound public opinion survey research – and why it’s important.
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Commercial Voter Files and the Study of U.S. Politics
A new analysis demystifies voter files, the widely-used and comprehensive digital databases used to better understand the U.S. electorate.
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A Field Guide to Polling: Election 2020 Edition
While survey research in the United States is a year-round undertaking, the public’s focus on polling is never more intense than during the run-up to a presidential election.
Comparing Two Types of Online Survey Samples
Pew Research Center conducted a study to compare the accuracy of six online surveys of U.S. adults – three from probability-based panels and three from opt-in sources. On average, the absolute error on opt-in samples was about twice that of probability-based panels.
Q&A: What is the American Trends Panel, and how has it changed?
Members of the American Trends Panel can now take our surveys online or over the phone with an interviewer.
How Public Polling Has Changed in the 21st Century
A new study found that 61% of national pollsters used different methods in 2022 than in 2016. And last year, 17% of pollsters used multiple methods to sample or interview people – up from 2% in 2016.
