This study examines the effect of the public opinion climate on respondents' responses in the survey and the moderating effect of the survey mode on this relationship. The process of responding to a poll is actually a process of expressing political o...
This study examines the effect of the public opinion climate on respondents' responses in the survey and the moderating effect of the survey mode on this relationship. The process of responding to a poll is actually a process of expressing political opinions. Therefore, if the public opinion environment is unfavorable to a specific group, respondents who support that group is not likely to willingly express their support in the survey. In addition, the presence or absence of an interviewer may exert a significant impact on the survey process.
To confirm this, this study analyzed how survey mode moderates the effect of support for the ruling party on the approval rating of the president through the cross-classified model with the use of presidential approval poll data published by the National Election Survey Deliberation Commission. A summary of the main research results based on the research hypothesis is as follows.
First, the public opinion environment significantly affects the approval rating of the president. If the public opinion environment favored (disadvantaged) the ruling party, the presidential approval rating was relatively higher (lower). Specifically, the approval rate of President Park Geun-hye, a conservative party candidate, was relatively low in an unfavorable public opinion environment in which the approval rate of the progressive party was higher than that of the conservative party. On the contrary, the approval rate of President Moon Jae-in, who was a progressive party candidate, was relatively high in a favorable public opinion environment in which the approval rate of the progressive party was higher than that of the conservative party.
Second, it was revealed that the influence of the survey mode on approval ratings differed depending on the president. The survey mode was not statistically significant in the approval rating of President Park Geun-hye. However, the survey mode was statistically significant in the approval rate of President Moon Jae-in. President Moon Jae-in's approval rate was higher in the telephone interview survey with interviewer than ARS survey without interviewer.
Third, it was confirmed that the survey mode moderates the relationship between the public opinion environment and the presidential approval rating. Specifically, respondents tend to reject the survey or intentionally give false opinion in an adverse public opinion environment. This trend of response was stronger in the telephone interview survey with the interviewer's intervention than in the ARS survey without it.