Home > News > Annals of Congressional Oversight of Social Science
98 views 38 sec 0 Comment

Annals of Congressional Oversight of Social Science

- April 15, 2013

bq. As a U.S. Representative from Oregon, the author has introduced several  bills to curb and to investigate public opinion polls, one of which is now pending before Congress. He is especially concerned about what he believes to be the “bandwagon” influence of the polls.

That is the abstract of a 1940 article in Public Opinion Quarterly (JSTOR link), by Congressman Walter Pierce.  Pierce writes:

bq. My recent effort has been a Joint Resolution creating a committee of five Senators and five Representatives “to investigate the conducting of polls purporting to measure public opinion with respect to questions or issues which have or may have a bearing upon any election held to fill any office under the Government of the United States, with special reference to the manner of framing questions contained in ballots or inquiries, the methods of selecting persons to whom ballots or inquiries are sent, and the reasons for conducting such polls.”

The Pierce piece is followed in that issue by a rebuttal co-authored by George Gallup.

In general, the social science literature has not found much evidence of bandwagoning.  I wrote a little on this here.

[Hat tip to Renan Levine.]