Decima Research

Theories of political behavior, as an aspect of political science, attempt to quantify and explain the influences that define a person's political views, ideology, and levels of political participation. Political behavior is the subset of human behavior that involves politics and power. Theorists who have had an influence on this field include Karl Deutsch and Theodor Adorno.

An opinion poll, often simply referred to as a survey or a poll, is a human research survey of public opinion from a particular sample. Opinion polls are usually designed to represent the opinions of a population by conducting a series of questions and then extrapolating generalities in ratio or within confidence intervals. A person who conducts polls is referred to as a pollster.

The American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR) is a professional organization of more than 2,000 public opinion and survey research professionals in the United States and from around the world, with members from academia, media, government, the non-profit sector and private industry. AAPOR publishes three academic journals: Public Opinion Quarterly, Survey Practice and the Journal of Survey Statistics and Methodology. It holds an annual research conference and maintains a "Code of Professional Ethics and Practices", for survey research which all members agree to follow. The association's founders include pioneering pollsters Archibald Crossley, George Gallup, and Elmo Roper.

Daniel Yankelovich was an American public opinion analyst and social scientist.

Warren J. Mitofsky was an American political pollster.

NORC at the University of Chicago, previously the National Opinion Research Center, is an independent social research organization in the United States. Established in 1941, its corporate headquarters is located in downtown Chicago, with offices in several other locations throughout the United States. Organized as an independent corporation, more than half its board comes from faculty and administration of the University of Chicago. It also jointly staffs some of the university's academic research centers.

James A. Davis (1929–2016) was a distinguished American sociologist who is best known as a pioneer in the application of quantitative statistical methods to social science research and teaching. Most recently, he was a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Chicago.

Nationwide public opinion polls that were conducted relating to the 2012 United States presidential election are as follows. The election was between Democratic Incumbent President Barack Obama, Republican Mitt Romney, as well as other third-party and independent challengers.

The Roper Center for Public Opinion Research at Cornell University is the world's oldest archive of social science data and the largest specializing in data from public opinion surveys. Its collection includes over 27,000 datasets and more than 855,000 questions with responses in Roper iPoll, adding hundreds more each year. The archive contains responses from millions of individuals on a vast range of topics. The current executive director of the center is Jonathon P. Schuldt, Associate Professor of Communication at Cornell University, with a governing board of directors chaired by Robert Y. Shapiro of Columbia University.

Elmo Burns Roper Jr. was an American pollster known for his pioneering work in market research and opinion polling, alongside friends-cum-rivals Archibald Crossley and George Gallup.

Adam J. Berinsky is a professor of political science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is the author of the 2004 book Silent Voices: Public Opinion and Political Participation in America and the 2009 book In Time of War: Understanding Public Opinion, From World War II to Iraq.

Everett Carll Ladd Jr. was an American political scientist based at the University of Connecticut. He was best known for his analysis and collection of public opinion polls. He directed the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research at the University of Connecticut; the Center's mission is to collect and preserve the reports and the original raw computerized data of polls and surveys since the 1930s. At his death, he had amassed 14,000 surveys from many countries. He was also an expert on the opinions and careers of social scientists.

The Suffolk University Political Research Center (SUPRC) is an opinion polling center at Suffolk University in Boston, Massachusetts.

Eric Schickler is an American political scientist, currently the Jeffrey & Ashley McDermott Endowed Chair at University of California, Berkeley and an Elected Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.

Norman M. Bradburn is an American social scientist and the Tiffany and Margaret Blake Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus at University of Chicago and former University Provost, and an Elected Fellow of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, American Statistical Association, and American Academy of Arts and Sciences.