Deck 15: Public Opinion

Question 1

What most shapes the attitudes reported by the majority of respondents who have, at best, limited understanding of the issues or policies under consideration?

A)decision heuristics
B)media coverage
C)political party
D)gut instinct

Answer 1

decision heuristics

Question 2

The relative importance of each decision heuristic tends to shift as issues evolve over time. Often the last to become salient is ____.

A)categorization
B)comparison by analogy
C)substitution
D)comparison by metaphor

Answer 2

categorization

Question 3

Attitudes are fundamentally based on ____.

A)comparisons
B)knowledge
C)the reality of people's experiences
D)misinformation

Answer 3

comparisons

Question 4

Roughly what percentage of Americans follow media coverage of health policymaking?

A)17%
B)6%
C)29%
D)48%

Question 5

One of the reasons that Americans favor more collective responsibility in health care than in other arenas of social policy is that ____.

A)even the well-off feel at risk from catastrophic medical expenses
B)the public blames the poor for their poor health
C)anti-regulatory sentiment prevails
D)Americans increasingly trust insurers, pharmaceutical companies, and employers

Question 6

One area of difference between this chapter and the burgeoning literature on how Americans think about health reform is its focus on ____.

A)the underlying psychological processes that give rise to the public's patterned attitudes
B)the government's roles in improving public health and providing affordable medical care
C)the splitters rather than the lumpers
D)statistical documentation of what the public thinks

Question 7

Better-informed citizens tend to treat health problems as ____.

A)an area of contested attribution of causal responsibility
B)outside the individual's control
C)a matter of personal choice and responsibility
D)dependent on distributional justice

Question 8

How do public officials, the media, and academics discern the public's policy-relevant attitudes?

A)public opinion polling through survey questions
B)extensive personal interviews
C)interactive focus groups
D)direct observation in decision-making situations

Question 9

In which way is public opinion regarding health policy different from other policy domains?

A)The public is more supportive of tax increases.
B)The public is more divided by income and race.
C)The public emphasizes personal responsibility.
D)The public believes there is too much government regulation.

Question 10

Which statement is true regarding public understanding of the Affordable Care Act?

A)At the end of 2010, roughly a third of the public answered less than half the questions correctly regarding the legislation.
B)Extensive media coverage and sustained public attention led to a solid understanding of the legislation.
C)Attention to media coverage did little to enhance public knowledge.
D)During the latter half of 2009, public interest in the legislation dwindled.

Question 11

Public opinion regarding existing public programs and policies and general allocations of responsibility between public and private sectors tend to be far more stable than regarding newly proposed initiatives. Which factor plays a crucial role?

A)experience
B)wording
C)timing
D)context

Question 12

Which statement is true regarding political elites?

A)Elite efforts to manipulate policy attitudes are constrained by the public's ability to test elite claims against personal experience.
B)Political elites rarely seek to influence public opinion on health policy issues.
C)Elites depend primarily on the comparison by metaphor heuristic to influence public opinion.
D)Few Americans actually believed Republican claims that the ACA created "death panels."

Question 13

Regina, a resident of Ohio, hears news reports about the emergence of a highly infectious influenza virus in Asia. In her opinion, her family is not at risk because public health officials successfully contained prior outbreaks of highly infectious conditions, such as SARS and H1N1 influenza. This is an example of opinion formation based on ____.

A)comparison by analogy
B)substitution
C)comparison by metaphor
D)categorization

Question 14

Non-responses to survey questions (declining to participate or answering "don't know")bias the results in predictable ways. Which statement is accurate regarding the Affordable Care Act (ACA)?

A)Non-respondents would be more likely to support the ACA.
B)Non-respondents would be less likely to support the ACA.
C)Non-response would be unrelated to support of the ACA.
D)Non-response would be most related to higher age and wealth.

Question 15

Knowledge and technology related to health tend to be in flux; therefore, public opinion related to health policy is most affected by ____.

A)emotional heuristics
B)metaphorical heuristics
C)partisan heuristics
D)comparative heuristics