Syllabus: iTV / Poli Sci U Course on Survey Experiments (original) (raw)
Related papers
From the lab to the poll: The use of survey experiments in political research
Italian Political Science Review/Rivista Italiana di Scienza Politica, 2021
The article offers an overview of the use of survey experiments in political research by relying on available examples, bibliographic data and a content analysis of experimental manuscripts published in leading academic journals over the last two decades. After a short primer to the experimental approach, we discuss the development, applications and potential problems to internal and external validity in survey experimentation. The article also provides original examples, contrasting a traditional factorial and a more innovative conjoint design, to show how survey experiments can be used to test theory on relevant political topics. The main challenges and possibilities encountered in envisaging, planning and implementing survey experiments are examined. The article outlines the merits, limits and implications of the use of the experimental method in political research.
The Logic of the Survey Experiment Reexamined
Political Analysis, 2006
Scholars of political behavior increasingly embed experimental designs in opinion surveys by randomly assigning respondents alternative versions of questionnaire items. Such experiments have major advantages: they are simple to implement and they dodge some of the difficulties of making inferences from conventional survey data. But survey experiments are no panacea. We identify problems of inference associated with typical uses of survey experiments in political science and highlight a range of difficulties, some of which have straightforward solutions within the survey-experimental approach and some of which can be dealt with only by exercising greater caution in interpreting findings and bringing to bear alternative strategies of research.
Experimental methods in political science
2002
This article reviews the use of experiments in political science. The beginning section offers an overview of experimental design and measures, as well as threats to internal and external validity, and discusses advantages and disadvantages to the use of experimentation. The number and placements of experiments in political science are reviewed. The bulk of the essay is devoted to an examination of what we have learned from experiments in the behavioral economics, political economy, and individual choice literatures.
Seminar, 2016
The election surveys over the last two decades have been a valuable and reliable source of information on India’s electoral politics as it provides a nuanced understanding of the factors that determines the verdict-why people voted the way they did, the changes and continuities from the past, and what the future might look like. The scientific models of political prediction based on opinion polls and human behaviour are more prone to error, but it must not be reduced merely to an election time media entertainment. The allegations that ‘paid election surveys’ can be used by political parties to influence voter expectations about electoral prospects of different parties seems to be grossly exaggerated, as there are no documentary evidence to prove these hyperboles. The intrinsic bias against forecasting needs to be curbed, as elections remain the most opportune moment to study Indian politics and people.
Is It Biased? Empirical Analysis of Various Phenomena That Affect Survey Results
Revija za sociologiju, 2021
It is often assumed that survey results reflect only the quality of the sample and the underlying measuring instruments used in the survey. However, various phenomena can affect the results, but these influences are often neglected when conducting surveys. This study aimed to test the influences of various method effects on survey results. We tested the influences of the following method effects: item wording, confirmatory bias, careless responding, and acquiescence bias. Using a split-ballot survey design with online questionnaires, we collected data from 791 participants. We tested if these method effects had an influence on mean values, item correlations, construct correlations, model fits, and construct measurement invariance. The instruments used to test these influences were from the domain of personality and gender inequality, and their items were adapted based on the method effect tested. All tested method effects, except careless responding, had a statistically significant ...
Understanding Sample Surveys: Selective Learning about Social Science Research Methods
PS: Political Science & Politics, 2010
We investigate differences in what students learn about survey methodology in a class on public opinion presented in two critically different ways: with the inclusion or exclusion of an original research project using a random-digit-dial telephone survey. Using a quasi-experimental design and data obtained from pretests and posttests in two public opinion courses, we test the hypothesis that students who participate in an original survey research project will have a stronger understanding of survey research methods than students who do not. To better assess the effect of the active learning element of the course, we estimate average treatment effects on the students who participated in the original survey project using nearest neighbor matching (Abadie et al. 2004) with student scores on a pretest. We find evidence of modest improvement in learning of survey methods in the course featuring the original survey research project; however, the major finding here is that a course featuri...
Political Science 590 Political Experiments: Design & Analysis, Part I
2012
General Information Overview Randomized interventions allow political scientists to claim that comparisons are causal: randomization allows us the ability to characterize counterfactual comparisons- to say how the treated group would have responded had treatment been withheld. Randomization also allows us to test hypotheses about causal comparisons without requiring large samples or probability models of outcomes. Randomized experiments thus promise to simplify our lives and to enable clear answers to important substantive and theoretical questions without requiring much in the way of extraneous justification. Yet, there is an art in designing and analyzing a randomized experiment. Only the simplest of experiments can be analyzed simply. And, in political science, we may not be able to directly require subjects to be exposed to a dose of our treatment and may need to work indirectly, using the randomization as an instrument to manipulate a dose, perhaps at a distance, perhaps weakly...