How do you gage peoples reactions to major issues ?
February 22, 2008
While I was pondering a good topic for our post today?.which I will now save for Sunday, I received an interesting email from a PHD candidate at the Stony Brooke University in New York.
How they came across my name and email is topic for another post on blogging and marketing fundamentals, but the gentleman asked for my assistance in posting a link to what I think is a pretty interesting survey.
Since I don?t usually post unsolicited Surveys, I took the survey myself. It took me about 12 minutes, but on average I am told it can take 15 to 20 minutes. I also went one further and wrote a comment in the survey asking if the survey was politically motivated or in support of one candidate vs another ?
I was pleasantly surprised to receive an almost immediate reply from Mr. Chris Weber who wrote:
“Hi Tom,
Thanks for taking the survey. I really appreciate it. I saw your note in the message section. As for your questions, no, the survey is not politically motivated. We are simply interested in gathering people’s emotional reactions to two political candidates. We don’t have a bias in favor of one candidate over another; and as I’m sure you noticed, the questions asked about Hillary Clinton are the exact same questions that are asked in reference to John McCain.
We originally wanted to use the two front-running candidates, but given the closeness on the Democratic side, we chose Hillary since we figured people would be more familiar with her. The purpose of the survey is mainly methodological. There’s a lot of controversy in political science about how to measure people’s emotions about political figures. The survey randomly assigns people to one of three conditions, which only differ in how emotion questions are asked. Our interest isn’t so much in specific emotions pertaining to these two candidates, but rather, how to best measure emotional reactions to any political candidate, Democrat, Republican, or Independent. Let me know if you have any other questions.”
The purpose of this survey is to examine how people think and feel about the political issues, parties, and candidates in the upcoming election. In the survey, you will be asked a series of questions about two political candidates, John McCain and Hillary Clinton. We are very interested in how individuals that find information on the web think about politics, and your participation would be greatly appreciated. In total, the survey should take about 15 minutes to complete. The survey is completely anonymous and you can skip any questions you do not wish to answer.
Click on the image here to take the survey:
Please feel free to contact Chris Weber (crweber@notes.cc.sunysb.edu) at Stony Brook University with any questions or concerns. Thanks for your help!
If you can’t open a browser from clicking on the image you can copy and past the following into your browser:
***
I will be sure to post a follow up link to the results that I am sure Chris will copy me on when they are in.
Get out and Vote on January 29th
January 28, 2008
It?s our turn here in the Greater Tampa Bay Area. There is a lot of activity going on and all the media hype on the polls can make it pretty intimidating to ascertain what exactly is going on. So, no matter what your political affiliation is or what trash talk you hear in the media, I would encourage you to ignore it and vote your conscience. Of course it helps if you know a little more about the person you are going to be voting for. I personally try to look at their past record as an indicator and not rely on what others think. If you are one of those that is sitting on the fence and think that your Vote in the Primary is not worth the effort, I would ask that you reconsider. If you don?t vote, then you loose your ability to help direct the course of history that will shape the direction of our county, as it moves forward into the future. Every VOTE does count. As they say in show business ?It ain’t over till the fat lady sings?, in this case it is not over until the votes are all counted or even recounted as it may be!. DO NOT LISTEN TO THE POLLS, they are often baseless, inaccurate and just plain wrong!
Besides voting for in this primary election for a Presidential Candidate, here in Florida we have another very important vote. That is for a constitutional amendment that affects property taxes for all home owners and business; that is Amendment # 1.
Weather you are for or against this, you should do yourself a favor and check out this online calculator to determine your actual ?tax equity? While there has been media spin on this a plenty both Pro and Con, I can say this from past experience on a similar vote on property taxes (I experienced in another State several years ago). Local and State officials do not like to cut taxes. What this means is that they will have to work like you and I and and try to live within their means. They will try scare tactics to prevent you from taking any action that might impede on their ability to spend like a drunken sailor. Fiscal responsibility is what they are trying to avoid. I won?t try to sway you one way or the other, just do your part and get out and Vote.