About the Scripps Survey Research Center
America's first Director of Homeland Security, Tom Ridge, was called before the House Judiciary Committee early in his term of office and asked to respond to the results of a national poll. "Ohio University has completed a survey that found only one in five knows the current threat condition, which is yellow, right," Congressman Spencer Bachus asked Ridge.
"Correct. Um, I'm sure you would have been upset if I didn't know that," Ridge replied carefully. "We have a lot of work to do and the poll reflects that."
The findings were an embarrassment for a White House that had worked hard for several months to explain its five-color threat assessment system intended to tell Americans of the danger posed by terrorism.
The color codes became comical fodder for late night talk show hosts and political cartoonists. But the poll confirmed a widely held suspicion in Washington, D.C., that very few people understood the warning system.
That finding was just the latest in a series of unusual, sometimes irreverent and intriguing surveys conducted by a unique partnership between the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism and the Scripps Howard News Service.
Since 1992, this partnership has conducted reliable public opinion research with an edge, asking questions that have never been asked before.
The Scripps Survey Research Center at Ohio University was founded by two veteran pollsters: newspaper reporter Thomas Hargrove and Distinguished Journalism Professor Guido H. Stempel III. Among the questions they've asked over the years:
- Do you know anyone who has beaten his wife?
- Do you think the federal government is withholding what it knows about flying saucers?
- Do you believe Jesus of Nazareth was born of a virgin mother, in Bethlehem, under a special star in a nativity heralded by angels?
- How certain are you the United States did the right thing in going to war against: Iraq, Vietnam, Korea, Mexico, Nazi Germany, Great Britain?
- Do you think the federal government has made your life better or worse?
- Do you have any heroes?
- Do you think people will believe in God a thousand years from now?
- Do you believe in ghosts?
- Have you ever been sexually harassed?
- Do you or does anyone in your home own a gun?
- What is your least favorite Christmas carol?
Hundreds of questions have been asked of tens of thousands of randomly selected adults over the years. The results have appeared in nearly 400 daily newspapers, on network television talk shows, even in the pages of the National Enquirer tabloid and Skeptical Inquirer magazine.
About newsPolls.org
newsPolls.org is the official Web site for the Scripps Survey Research Center at Ohio University, making results of the center's surveys widely available in an interactive, user-friendly format.
Site credits:
Robert Stewart, head of Web development team
Claus Rasmussen, php and mysql programmer
Garrett Lane, designer
