Introducing The Public Pulse
The Public Pulse centers on the conviction that public opinion is a key component in our representative democracy—a baseline necessity for the way in which the U.S. system of government operates. Elected officials, leaders, journalists, and the general public need to be able to access and understand the broad contours of the views of the entire population. This is particularly important in a highly polarized environment in which fewer and fewer voters can determine the outcome of elections.
Survey research is our primary mechanism for accomplishing this objective.
The Public Pulse Project thus consists of a series of neutral, evidence-based, systematic reports describing public opinion on key policy issues at the forefront of legislative, policy and journalistic debate.
The Public Pulse does not commission primary research, instead using existing surveys which are already published and in the public domain. Reports focus exclusively on survey research in the U.S.
Each Public Pulse report follows a standardized format, using a prescribed set of focus points. These reviews provide an in-depth summary statement of where public opinion stands on each topic, accompanied by an assessment of the availability of data on each topic, overall confidence in the ability of the data to accurately reflect public opinion, the impact of question wording on interpretations of public opinion on the topic, the public’s level of knowledge on the topic, evaluation of conflicts in measures of public opinion across surveys, and unknowns or areas of uncertainty in public opinion on the topic.