DOI: 10.3886/icpsr27322
title: ABC News Poll, July 2008
title: Archival Version

description: This poll, conducted July 23-28, 2008, is part of a continuing series of monthly surveys that solicit public opinion on the presidency and on a range of other political and social issues. A national sample of 1,000 adults was surveyed. Information was collected on respondents' opinion of the environment and their views on various environmental issues. This included how the respondent rated the condition of the natural environment, the single biggest environmental problem the world faces, how much they trust the things that scientists say about the environment, and whether they thought the weather patterns in the last three years have been more stable both where the respondent lives and in the world in general. Respondents were also asked whether they had heard about the idea that the world's temperature may have been rising slowly over the past 100 years and if they thought this statement was true. They were asked if they believed the increase in temperature was caused by things people do or by natural causes. The issue of global warming was brought up and respondents answered questions of how important it was to them, how much they knew about global warming, how serious a problem they thought it was, whether it will pose a serious threat to them or their way of life in their lifetime, whether it will be a problem for future generations, whether or not scientists agree that global warming is happening, and whether most scientists agree with one another about the causes and threat of global warming. Respondents were asked if they thought the United States should take action on global warming only if other major industrial countries such as China and India agree to do equally effective things, the effect on the economy if the United States does more than other countries to address global warming, whether global warming can be reduced without people making major changes in lifestyle, and whether the government or businesses would be better for reducing global warming. Information was also collected on whether respondents used products made from recycled materials, whether recycled products were easier to find now than five years ago, and whether these products were actually better for the environment. Respondents were also asked if they would be more or less likely to vote for a candidate for president if they are a strong environmentalist, Barack Obama and John McCain's positions on global warming, and which candidate would do more to reduce global warming in the future. Questions were asked on whether the recent price increases in gasoline have caused any financial hardship for the respondent, how closely they were following the news about the environment, their main source of information about environmental issues, and if they considered themselves an environmentalist. Demographic variables include sex, age, race, income, political party affiliation, political philosophy, education level, religious preference, type of residential area (e.g., urban or rural), whether any children under the age of 18 are living in the household, and whether respondents considered themselves to be a born-again Christian.
description: The data contain a weight variable (WEIGHT) that should be used in analyzing the data. The weights were derived using demographic information from the Census to adjust for sampling and nonsampling deviations from population values. Until 2008 ABC News used a cell-based weighting system in which respondents were classified into one of 48 or 32 cells (depending on sample size) based on their age, race, sex, and education; weights were assigned so the proportion in each cell matched the Census Bureau's most recent Current Population Survey. To achieve greater consistency and reduce the chance of large weights, ABC News in 2007 tested and evaluated iterative weighting, commonly known as raking or rim weighting, in which the sample is weighted sequentially to Census targets one variable at a time, continuing until the optimum distribution across variables (again, age, race, sex, and education) is achieved. ABC News adopted rim weighting in January 2008. Weights are capped at lows of 0.2 and highs of 6.
description: Households were selected by random-digit dialing. Within households, the respondent selected was the adult living in the household who last had a birthday and who was home at the time of the interview. Please refer to the codebook documentation for more information on sampling.
description: Datasets: 
DS1: ABC News Poll, July 2008
description: Persons aged 18 and over living in households with telephones in the contiguous 48 United States.
description: computer-assisted telephone interview (CATI)The data available for download are not weighted and users will need to weight the data prior to analysis.The variables PCTBLACK, PCTASIAN, PCTHISP, MSAFLAG, CSA, CBSA, METRODIV, NIELSMKT, BLOCKCNT, and ZIP were converted from character variables to numeric.To preserve respondent confidentiality, codes for the variables FIPS (FIPS County) and ZIP (ZIP Code) have been replaced with blank codes.System-missing values were recoded to -1.The CASEID variable was created for use with online analysis.Value labels for unknown codes were added in variables MSA, CSA, CBSA, METRODIV, and NIELSMKT.The variable CBSA contains diacritical marks.