Publication Date:July 1, 1993 Availability:Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Examines a fundamental problem for opinion polls and those who use them.
Customer Reviews:
An excellent resource for those interested in opinion pollsMarch 24, 1997 3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Brehm's book is an excellent treatment of the problem ofsurvey non-response. It is a well-known fact that in academic surveys of public opinion and attitudes that it is getting increasingly difficult to get people to agree to spend even a few minutes on the phone answering any type of survey questions. There is strong reason to believe that this problem is even worse for non-academic surveys, since they have less incentive to pursue possible survey respondents. Brehm develops a theoretical framework in his book which allows for a clear and coherent understanding of why it is people don't agree to answer surveys. He performs a number of tests of his framework, and even delves into the politically-sensitive question of whether or not survey non-response influences the reported results of surveys. While the effects he demonstrates in this latter analyis aren't horribly strong, they are strong enough (in the context of an academic survey) that they clearly call into question the quality of non-academic survey results.
