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The
Metallic Metals Act is considered a classic example of pseudo-opinions and difficulties with close-ended survey questions and continues to be supported by later studies. By 1991, it had become standard practice to include a false question in opinion surveys to gauge the degree of pseudo-opinions.
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Despite Payne's call to action, pseudo-opinions remained largely unstudied until the 1980s, but in 1970 Philip
Converse postulated that answering "don't know" is seen by respondents as an admission of "mental incapacity". In 1981, researchers Howard Schuman and Stanley Presser were unable to locate
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A similar study by Eugene
Hartley in 1946 asked college students how connected they felt to students of various nationalities. His questionnaire included three imaginary nationalities, but a majority of students did not question them. Together, these two studies are the earliest publicized examples
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A study by the
University of Cincinnati found 20 to 40 percent of Americans will provide pseudo-opinions because of social pressure, using context clues to select an answer they believe will please the questioner. This has occasionally provided a source for jokes on
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but were not immediately taken seriously in the field of public opinion because most professionals felt the studies were ridiculous and reflected negatively on their field. One exception, Stanley L. Payne, wrote about Gill's study in the 1951
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Sam Gill was a
Marketing Research Director for Sherman & Marquette, Inc when he included a question about the fictional Metallic Metals Act in a survey. He reported on the results in the March 14, 1947, issue of
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Respondents were asked this question and were given four possible answers: "Which of the following statements most closely coincides with your opinion of the
Metallic Metals Act?"
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magazine. When given four possible replies, 70% of respondents claimed to have an opinion on the act. It has become a classic example of the risks of meaningless responses to
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and comedy shows who air interviews to mock the respondents. Other studies have shown the phenomenon is not limited to the United States. In a 2019 opinion piece written for
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magazine in an article titled "How Do You Stand on Sin?", saying that 70% of respondents claimed to have an opinion on the topic. Gill also asked respondents if they favored
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rather than a true study. Their research found that pseudo-opinions are a significant source of error but not as prevalent as
Hartley and Gill's studies suggested.
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was a fictional piece of legislation included in a 1947 American opinion survey conducted by Sam Gill and published in the March 14, 1947, issue of
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of opinion surveys on fake subjects, a phenomenon known as a pseudo-opinion. At the time, the results of both studies amused
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Bishop, G.; Tuchfarber, A.; Oldendick, R. (1986). "Opinions on
Fictitious Issues: The Pressure to Answer Survey Questions".
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498:"Survey suggests that one third of US 8th graders believe that Canada, France, and Australia are dictatorships"
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journal article "Thoughts About
Meaningless Questions" and called for further investigation into this type of
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speculated that most opinion polls represent only what respondents heard most recently in the news media.
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Bishop, G.; Oldendick, R.; Tuchfarber, A.; Bennett, S. (1980). "Pseudo-Opinions on Public
Affairs".
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529:"The Polling Industry Doesn't Measure Public Opinion - It Produces It"
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documentation for Gill's study and concluded it should be taken as an
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Baker, Michael J. (1991). "Data collection — questionnaire design".
246:"The Metallic Metals Act Shows People Always Bluffed About Politics"
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It’s alright for foreign countries, but should not be required here
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Payne, Stanley L. (1950). "Thoughts About Meaningless Questions".
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465:"The 'Bomb Agrabah' Survey Shows How Problematic Polling Can Be"
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Lawless, Harry T.; Heymann, Hildegarde (August 31, 1999).
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and prompted the study of the pseudo-opinion phenomenon.
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404:"Political ignorance and bombing Agrabah"
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434:. London: Palgrave. pp. 132–158.
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244:Inglis-Arkell, Esther (June 6, 2014).
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173:The Illusion of Public Opinion
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51:left to the individual states
496:Somin, Ilya (May 23, 2015).
315:The Public Opinion Quarterly
277:The Public Opinion Quarterly
208:The Public Opinion Quarterly
155:How Questions Affect Answers
92:The Public Opinion Quarterly
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565:Hoaxes in the United States
440:10.1007/978-1-349-21230-9_7
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378:Sensory Evaluation of Food
170:Bishop, George F. (2005).
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178:Rowman & Littlefield
58:It is of no value at all
560:Psychology experiments
527:(September 20, 2019).
432:Research for Marketing
29:closed-ended questions
354:. Sage. p. 147.
16:Fictional legislation
503:The Washington Post
409:The Washington Post
21:Metallic Metals Act
575:1947 introductions
97:non-sampling error
449:978-0-333-47021-3
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570:1940s hoaxes
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536:. Retrieved
533:The Guardian
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554:Categories
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134:References
118:talk shows
509:July 17,
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103:Legacy
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74:incest
331:JSTOR
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224:JSTOR
540:2020
511:2018
483:2018
444:ISBN
417:2018
383:ISBN
356:ISBN
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182:ISBN
70:Tide
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19:The
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