National Race and Politics Survey, United States, 1991 (ICPSR 38172)

Version Date: Apr 21, 2022

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Principal Investigator(s):
Paul M. Sniderman, Stanford University; Philip E. Tetlock, University of California, Berkeley; Thomas Piazza, University of California, Berkeley

Series:

https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR38172.v1

Version V1

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Summary

The 1991 National Race and Politics Survey was a nationwide random-digit telephone survey carried out by the Survey Research Center of the University of California, Berkeley. A mailback survey of willing respondents to the telephone survey was also carried out. Data from the mailback survey are also included in the data file.

The telephone and mailback surveys included many questions related to racial attitudes and political orientation. There were also many questions on values, personality measures, and goals. A multi-disciplinary research team planned the survey and developed the questionnaire. The telephone interview was a computer-assisted survey that incorporated many randomized experiments, including vignettes and unobtrusive measures.

Citation

Sniderman, Paul M., Tetlock, Philip E., and Piazza, Thomas. National Race and Politics Survey, United States, 1991. Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2022-04-21. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR38172.v1

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Funding

National Science Foundation (SES-8508937)

Subject Terms

Geographic Coverage

Smallest Geographic Unit

state

Distributor(s)

Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research
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Time Period(s)

1991-02 -- 1991-11

Date of Collection

1991-02-01 -- 1992-02-17

Data Collection Notes

  1. This was one of a series of studies focusing primarily on racial attitudes, politics, and prejudice carried out under the lead of Paul M. Sniderman of Stanford University and Thomas Piazza of the University of California, Berkeley. These studies were designed to incorporate several experiments into computer-assisted surveys.

    This particular study was distinctive in that it included an open-ended question that was subsequently coded into a number of variables.

    Note that there was a problem with correlations between some of the random number variables used to determine the wording of some questions. See Appendix D of the P.I. Codebook for details.

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Study Purpose

The telephone and mailback surveys included many questions related to racial attitudes and political orientation. There were also many questions on values, personality measures, and goals. A multi-disciplinary research team planned the survey and developed the questionnaire. The telephone interview was a computer-assisted survey that incorporated many randomized experiments, including vignettes and unobtrusive measures.

Study Design

At the end of the telephone interview, respondents were asked if they could be sent a questionnaire to fill out and return by mail. Of 2,223 respondents, 1,942 consented to have the questionnaire sent to them, and 1,198 eventually returned the questionnaire. Some checking was done on gender and age to confirm that the mailback questionnaire was filled out by the same person who completed the telephone interview, and a few mailbacks were discarded on that basis.

For more information on response rates, please refer to the "Response Rates" section of the metadata.

Sample

This study employed a stratified two-phase random digit telephone sample (see Appendix A in the P.I. Codebook for further details). Within the selected households, all English-speaking adults aged 18 and older were enumerated, and one adult was selected at random to be interviewed.

Time Method

Cross-sectional

Universe

English speaking persons aged 18 and older living in households with telephones.

Unit(s) of Observation

Individual

Data Type(s)

Mode of Data Collection

Response Rates

Of 7,434 selected telephone numbers, 3,403 were deemed eligible English-speaking households after at least 18 calls. Of the eligible households, 2,223 (65.3 percent) resulted in a completed telephone interview. Of the completed interviews, 1,198 (53.9 percent) returned the mailback questionnaire. See Appendix C of the P.I. Codebook for more details.

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Original Release Date

2022-04-21

Version History

2022-04-21 ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:

  • Created online analysis version with question text.
  • Performed recodes and/or calculated derived variables.

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Weight

A person-level sampling weight (SAMPWT) is provided, which adjusts for differences in the probability of selection. Two post-stratification weights are also provided to adjust the sample to match 1990 Current Population Survey distributions on gender, race, age, and education. One post-stratification weight (PSWT) applies to all respondents; the second post-stratification weight (PSWTMAIL) applies to those respondents who returned the follow-up mailback questionnaire. See Appendix B of the P.I. Codebook for details on the creation of the weights.

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Notes