Those who seek to accurately gauge public opinion must first ask themselves: Why are certain opinions highly
volatile while others are relatively fixed? Why are some surveys affected by question wording or communicative
medium (e.g., telephone) while others seem immune? In Hard Choices, Easy Answers, R. Michael Alvarez and John Brehm
develop a new theory of response variability that, by reconciling the strengths and weaknesses of the standard
approaches, will help pollsters and scholars alike better resolve such perennial problems. Working within the context
of U.S. public opinion, they contend that the answers Americans give rest on a variegated structure of political
predispositions--diverse but widely shared values, beliefs, expectations, and evaluations.
Alvarez and Brehm argue that respondents deploy what they know about politics (often little) to think in terms
of what they value and believe. Working with sophisticated statistical models, they offer a unique analysis of
not just what a respondent is likely to choose, but also how variable those choices would be under differing circumstances.
American public opinion can be characterized in one of three forms of variability, conclude the authors: ambivalence,
equivocation, and uncertainty. Respondents are sometimes ambivalent, as in attitudes toward abortion or euthanasia.
They are often equivocal, as in views about the scope of government. But most often, they are uncertain, sure of
what they value, but unsure how to use those values in political choices.
Table of Contents
List of Figures
List of Tables
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1: A Fickle Public?
PART 1 :THEORY AND METHODS
Chapter 2: Predispositions
Chapter 3: Why Does Political Information Matter?
Chapter 4: Ambivalence, Uncertainty, and Equivocation
PART 2: MASS PUBLIC OPINION
Chapter 5: Ambivalent Attitudes: Abortion and Euthanasia
Chapter 6: Uncertainty and Racial Attitudes
Chapter 7: Equivocation
PART 3 : MASSES AND ELITES
Chapter 8: Mass Opinion and Representation
Chapter 9: Do Elites Experience Ambivalence Where Masses Do Not?
Chapter 10: Politics, Psychology, and the Survey Response
