Is there public opinion?

Not all people have an opinion on the issue that sociologists ask - although they may have a completely clear opinion on issues that do not ask

Once I was offered to cooperate with a new popular publication. I agreed and wrote an article. But the fact that in another publication an experienced editor would probably accept the publication, the girl who ordered me the text did not like here. She wanted to make him more “scientific” and offered to supplement the article with data of mass polls. I took the article from the editorial office, not having to prove to the editor that if you drink more numbers in the text, he may become no more, but less scientific. So our cooperation ended, without even starting in essence.

The trouble of today's ideas about scientificity, or rather, about evidence, which is important even in popular science texts, is that the figure has become an authority that is believed when it is necessary and when it is not necessary. They believe, not really understanding that this figure is standing, and not trying to seriously analyze the information received.

Therefore, the book of Professor Shaninka Grigory Yudin “Public opinion, or power of numbers ” from the popular series “ABC of concepts” (publishing house of the European University in St. Petersburg, 2020) today can be extremely useful. It should be read to understand what exactly is behind the data of the Levada Center (recognized as a foreign agent), VTsIOM, Thomas and other surveys.

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