Overall, the survey found that by virtue of racial prejudice, Obama could lose 5 percentage points off his share of the popular vote in his Nov. 6 contest against Republican challenger Mitt Romney. But Obama also stands to benefit from a 3 percentage point gain due to pro-black sentiment, researchers said. Overall, that means an estimated net loss of 2 percentage points due to anti-black attitudes.
"Racial prejudice" vs "pro-black sentiment" Are these things different somehow?
The survey questions are also available, and they include gems like:
RAC11. How well does each of these
words describe most blacks?
[ITEMS TO INSERT, RANDOMIZE]
Friendly
Extremely well
Very well
Moderately well
Slightly well
Not at all
Refused/Not answeredHow is a rational and honest person supposed to answer that? "I know a few friendly and a few non-friendly and quite a few I've never gotten to know, with more being X than Y" doesn't fit in their grid anywhere.
2 comments:
It sure looks like they want a certain result, but have come up against the wall of "gee, that's not a very scientific way to ask that. How can we make this sorta kinda fit scientific models, while still getting the result we are pretty sure is there?"
That's the usual method of research in the soft sciences. Start with a theory, assemble or create observations that support it, publish. That might be a bit cynical, but the media likes sensational, so interesting claims tend to be buried under provocative ones.
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