What Low Response Rates Mean for Telephone Surveys
Telephone polls still provide accurate data on a wide range of social, demographic and political variables, but some weaknesses persist.
Methods 101: Random Sampling
The first video in Pew Research Center’s Methods 101 series helps explain random sampling – a concept that lies at the heart of all probability-based survey research – and why it’s important.
How can a survey of 1,000 people tell you what the whole U.S. thinks?
The first video in our "Methods 101" series is about random sampling, a concept that undergirds all probability-based survey research. Here's how it works.
Q&A: Political polls and the 2016 election
Courtney Kennedy of Pew Research Center, who chaired survey researchers organization AAPOR's task force on political polling in the 2016 U.S. elections, discuss the group's findings and recommendations.
Are Telephone Polls Understating Support for Trump?
An experiment comparing responses to 27 questions fielded on both a telephone and a web survey found no significant mode differences in overall opinion about Trump or many of his signature policy positions.
A basic question when reading a poll: Does it include or exclude nonvoters?
Opinion polls in the U.S. can address the same topic yet reach very different results. There are several reasons this can happen, but we tackle one of the most basic: Did the poll include or exclude the 45% who didn’t vote in November?
Video: The Research Lifecycle – A Look Inside Pew Research Center
Lee Rainie and Dr. Cary Funk explain the type of research they do with Pew Research Center, as well as how the Center chooses what projects to tackle, in this video from SAGE.
Video: Why 2016 election polls missed their mark
The results of the 2016 presidential election came as a surprise to nearly everyone who had been following the national and state election polling
Why 2016 election polls missed their mark
There is a great deal of speculation but no clear answers as to the cause of the disconnect, but there is one point of agreement: Across the board, polls underestimated Trump's level of support.
Just how does the general election exit poll work, anyway?
The firm that runs the presidential exit poll expects to interview about 100,000 voters across the country by the time the polls close on election night.
