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.
Q&A: The growing use of ‘voter files’ in studying the U.S. electorate
Read a Q&A with Pew Research Center’s Ruth Igielnik and Scott Keeter about a recent study about voter files.
Use of election forecasts in campaign coverage can confuse voters and may lower turnout
Probability forecasts have gained prominence in recent years. But these forecasts may confuse potential voters and may even lower the likelihood that they vote.
For Weighting Online Opt-In Samples, What Matters Most?
A growing share of polling is conducted with online opt-in, or nonprobability, samples. This trend has raised some concern within the industry because, while low participation rates pose a challenge for all surveys, the online opt-in variety face additional hurdles.
Public Opinion Research in Sub-Saharan Africa
Pew Research Center hosted a survey methodology workshop on the opportunities and challenges of conducting public opinion research in sub-Saharan Africa to identify and discuss best practices and future directions for the field.
Many poll respondents guess wrong on their interviewer’s race or ethnicity
Establishing the interviewer’s perceived race or ethnicity is essential to understanding how it might affect the respondent’s answers to survey questions.
How Pew Research Center surveyed 1,000 U.S. Muslims
In a short video, Pew Research Center researchers explain how they produced the Center’s wide-ranging new survey of 1,001 American Muslims.
Video: How Pew Research Center Conducted Its 2017 Survey of Muslim Americans
In this short video, Pew Research Center researchers explain how they overcame these obstacles to produce the Center’s wide-ranging new survey of 1,001 American Muslims.
Personal finance questions elicit slightly different answers in phone surveys than online
People polled by telephone are slightly less likely than those interviewed online to say their personal finances are in “poor shape."
Q&A: How and why Pew Research Center surveyed Americans on online harassment
Read a Q&A with Maeve Duggan, Pew Research Center research associate, on our survey examining online harassment in the United States.
