Vanity Fair: How two academics are trying to break the outrage cycle

Vanity Fair opens a story on what’s being billed as one of the largest in-person social science experiments with a story famous among pollsters involving the late University of Cincinnati political scientist George Bishop, who died earlier this year. Nearly 40 years ago, the expert in public opinion research conducted a survey of whether the Public Affairs Act of 1975 should be repealed. One third of respondents offered a firm opinion one way or another. Only, there was no such act; it was fabricated solely for the purposes of the poll. Bishop called the responses “pseudo-opinions,” reflecting the reality-distorting power of social pressure in polling.

Read the story here.

Featured image at top: Two men argue during a demonstration ​against white supremacy and the alt right at the University of California Berkel​ey. By Mark Peterson/Redux.