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
Read our research on:
Methodological Research
Sign up for our Methods newsletter
The latest on survey methods, data science and more, delivered quarterly.
All
Methodological Research
Publications
-
Country-Specific Methodology
Detailed information on Pew Research Center international survey methodology, such as mode of interview, sampling design, margin of error, and design effect, for each country we survey, organized by survey, country and year.
-
Q&A: Why and how we compared the public’s views of artificial intelligence with those of AI experts
In this Q&A, we speak with Brian Kennedy, a senior researcher at the Center, on why and how we conducted the survey of AI experts.
-
Key things to know about U.S. election polling in 2024
Polls are more useful to the public if people have realistic expectations about what surveys can do well – and what they cannot.
-
Quiz: Test your polling knowledge
Test your knowledge of public opinion polling by taking our 10-question quiz.
-
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 do people in the U.S. take Pew Research Center surveys, anyway?
Here, we address some of the most common questions we receive about the nuts and bolts of taking a U.S.-focused Pew Research Center poll.
-
Reproducibility as part of code quality control
In this post, we discuss reproducibility as a part of Pew Research Center’s code review process.
-
Online opt-in polls can produce misleading results, especially for young people and Hispanic adults
We examine how an opt-in poll may have unintentionally misled the public about the sensitive issue of Holocaust denial among young Americans.
-
Who Are You? The Art and Science of Measuring Identity
As a shop that studies human behavior through surveys and other social scientific techniques, we have a good line of sight into the contradictory nature of human preferences. Here’s a look at how we categorize our survey participants in ways that enhance our understanding of how people think and behave.
-
Q&A: How we used large language models to identify guests on popular podcasts
We asked researchers how they used the newest generation of large language models to analyze roughly 24,000 podcast episodes.
REfine Your Selection
Date
Years
Formats
Regions & Countries
Research Teams
Bylines
Signature Reports
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.
