Conferences

The goal of this paper is to discuss the development of indicators towards surveys. We argue that attitudes to surveys can be measured through several substantive dimensions that are all potentially relevant for their impact on survey quality: the degree of knowledge that people declare to have about surveys, the frequency of attendance to surveys’ results; the degree of confidence and the perceived utility of surveys. Second, we explore the social and attitudinal basis of these attitudes. Third, we analyse how these five different theoretical dimensions work empirically. We make use of factor analysis techniques and find that, in contrast to the five theoretical dimensions identified previously (based on the existing literature on this topic), there seems to be only two different empirical dimensions that characterise public opinion on surveys in the Spanish case. The first one refers to the supply side: the technical characteristics of surveys and their credibility as instruments to measure public opinion, whereas the second relates to the public demand of surveys, i.e. the consumption and enjoyment of surveys from the public. The paper finishes with a discussion of the implications of this findings for relevant issues such as response rates.

To address these questions we will analyze a survey on the views citizens have of surveys that was carried out by CIS (Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas) in March 2007 to a representative sample of the Spanish population.