What a difference a phrase makes. Since George Gallup developed the question in the 1930s, Americans have answered the open-ended query, What do you think is the most important problem facing the country today?<\/em> But Samuel Larson \u201911 wondered if there was biased wording in the famous inquiry so he and a team of Stanford researchers decided to recast the question.<\/p>\n \u201cI think the most important thing we found is that we think that our data show that the original \u2018most important problem\u2019 question doesn\u2019t give a full picture of what Americans care about,\u201d Larson said. \u201cIt biases people away from the idea that there\u2019s more than just America and the problems of the future. We think people do care about these issues and issues that affect the whole world.\u201d<\/p>\n Last year, Larson was working in Professor Jon Krosnick\u2019s clinical psychology research group with Ph.D. student David Yeager when he began to question the wording of the question.<\/p>\n \u201cI asked them about that, so we decided to tear into the question and tease out what was in the wording,\u201d said Larson, a current participant in the \u201cStanford in Washington\u201d program.<\/p>\n They made four changes to the question in time for the Associated Press-Stanford poll conducted at the end of November among 1,005 adults.<\/p>\n \u201cFirst, we decided to change this country<\/em> to the world<\/em>, and second, we wanted to broaden the time horizon so we included the future<\/em>,\u201d Larson said. \u201cThe third thing is when we look at those questions, we\u2019re worried about optimism bias.\u201d<\/p>\n Larson said that people may believe that global warming will be a big problem but they don\u2019t have to deal with it because society will deal with it.<\/p>\n And the last change, Larson said, was using serious problem<\/em> as opposed to important <\/em>because of the ambiguity around its meaning.<\/p>\n The team ultimately decided on the new wording: What do you think will be the most serious problem facing the world in the future if nothing is done to stop it?<\/em><\/p>\n Krosnick asked the AP to include both questions in the final survey with over 70 other questions.<\/p>\n The results showed a significant difference in the percentage of responses. Roughly one percent of respondents named the global warming category in answering the traditionally worded question. The most common responses were the economy (36 percent), unemployment (14 percent), health care (13 percent), government (6 percent) and war (5 percent).<\/p>\n Gallup published similar results on November 16 of last year. It found 31 percent of respondents cited the economy as the most pressing issue, compared to the previous month\u2019s 26 percent.<\/p>\n But in the re-worded question for the AP-Stanford poll, the percentage that named global warming increased to nearly 12 percent, the second most common response after the economy (16 percent).<\/p>\n \u201cMy belief that is there is no meaningful decline in public concern about this issue and there have been inadequate survey questions,\u201d Krosnick said about the research results.<\/p>\n Krosnick and Larson are interested in exploring the possibility that the rewording of this question can affect the results of other surveys that try to capture \u201cnational mood.\u201d Krosnick especially recognizes Larson and the research team.<\/p>\n \u201cTen undergrads work in my lab every year and those students are a terrific group,\u201d Krosnick said. \u201cAnd every so often people end up doing remarkable work. I\u2019m terrifically proud of the work that Sam did and it did take the whole team a lot of work. I think it\u2019s a wonderful thing for Stanford to be proud of.\u201d<\/p>\n In addition to the new academic findings of the revised survey question, there are also political implications for a change in survey results.<\/p>\n \u201cI think interest in the environment relates to the political feasibility for climate change legislation passing this year,\u201d said Ishan Nath \u201912, president of Stanford\u2019s chapter of the environmental college network, IDEAS.<\/p>\n Nath said that climate change is a hot-button issue among Stanford students as a whole, but he believes there is only a vocal minority. To help foster dialogue on climate change, Nath and IDEAS are partnering with the Stanford Political Union to host a student debate on climate change policy on February 9. The event will also feature Stanford climatologist Steve Schneider and professor of environmental and resource economics Larry Goulder.<\/p>\n \u201cWe hope student questions will be a significant part of the event,\u201d Nath said. \u201cI can\u2019t speak for other universities, but at Stanford there\u2019s a significant core of students dedicated to environmental causes.\u201d<\/p>\n Theo Gibbs \u201911, co-president of Students for a Sustainable Stanford, added that concerned students may not be visibly engaged in discussion surrounding the environment.<\/p>\n \u201cIn terms of activism in general on campus, most people would agree that Stanford isn\u2019t an activist campus,\u201d Gibbs said. \u201cStudents choose other methods of engagement. That may be a generational difference. We don\u2019t view marching on the streets as an effective form. I think there\u2019s more of a business-like model in terms of solving issues. We have to consider the economics and long term viability of these issues.\u201d<\/p>\n When asked about his reaction to the public response to the AP-Stanford survey results, Professor Krosnick expressed concern with the interpretation of the numbers.<\/p>\n \u201cI am disappointed in the press in general\u2019s coverage of public opinion recently,\u201d he said. \u201cThe science does not suggest public drop-off in concern of climate change and yet the media coverage has suggested that the public is less concerned.\u201d<\/p>\n Nath said that there is a ticking time bomb on climate change legislation, and if it\u2019s going to happen, it\u2019s going to be now or never.<\/p>\n \u201cIt needs to happen when there\u2019s a Democratic majority and if it doesn\u2019t happen this year, then it might not happen,\u201d Nath said. \u201cI think this poll is really about that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The re-wording of a famous national survey question revealed that Americans may be more concerned about issues, like the environment, than formerly believed. What a difference a phrase makes. Since George Gallup developed the question in the 1930s, Americans have answered the open-ended query, What do you think is the most important problem facing the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4598,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-229793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4598"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=229793"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229793\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}