1996 American National Election Study
General Information on the Study
Lists Available to Search for Variables
Appendices
AMERICAN NATIONAL ELECTION STUDY, 1996:
PRE- AND POST-ELECTION SURVEY
(ICPSR 6896)
PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATORS:
Steven J. Rosenstone, University of Minnesota
Donald R. Kinder, University of Michigan
Warren E. Miller, Arizona State University
and the National Election Studies
First ICPSR Release
April 1997
Inter-university Consortium for
Political and Social Research
P.O. Box 1248
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106
BIBLIOGRAPHIC CITATION
Publications based on ICPSR data collections should
acknowledge those sources by means of bibliographic
citations. To ensure that such source attributions are
captured for social science bibliographic utilities,
citations must appear in footnotes or in the reference
section of publications. The bibliographic citation for
this data collection is:
Rosenstone, Steven J., Donald R. Kinder, Warren
E. Miller, and the National Election Studies.
AMERICAN NATIONAL ELECTION STUDY, 1996: PRE-
AND POST-ELECTION SURVEY [Computer file]. Ann
Arbor, MI: University of Michigan, Center for
Political Studies [producer], 1997. Ann Arbor,
MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political
and Social Research [distributor], 1997.
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DATA DISCLAIMER
The original collector of the data, ICPSR, and the
relevant funding agency bear no responsibility for uses
of this collection or for interpretations or inferences
based upon such uses.
DATA COLLECTION DESCRIPTION
Steven J. Rosenstone, Donald R. Kinder, Warren E. Miller, and the
National Election Studies
AMERICAN NATIONAL ELECTION STUDY, 1996: PRE- AND POST-ELECTION
SURVEY (ICPSR 6896)
SUMMARY: This study is part of a time-series collection of national
surveys fielded continuously since 1952. The election studies are
designed to present data on Americans' social backgrounds, enduring
political predispositions, social and political values, perceptions
and evaluations of groups and candidates, opinions on questions of
public policy, and participation in political life. The 1996
National Election Study contains both pre- and post-election
components. The Pre-Election Survey includes interviews in which
approximately 77 percent of the cases are comprised of empaneled
respondents first interviewed in either AMERICAN NATIONAL ELECTION
STUDY, 1992: PRE- AND POST-ELECTION SURVEY [ENHANCED WITH 1990 AND
1991 DATA] (ICPSR 6067) or in AMERICAN NATIONAL ELECTION STUDY,
1994: POST-ELECTION SURVEY [ENHANCED WITH 1992 AND 1993 DATA]
(ICPSR 6507). The other 23 percent of the pre-election cases are a
freshly drawn cross-section sample. Of the 1,714 citizens who were
interviewed during the pre-election stage, 1,534 (89.5 percent)
also participated in the Post-Election Survey (1,197 of these were
panel cases and 337 were cross-section). The content of the 1996
Election Study reflects its dual function, both as the traditional
presidential election year time-series data collection and as a
panel study. Substantive themes presented in the 1996
questionnaires include interest in the political campaigns, concern
about the outcome, attentiveness to the media's coverage of the
campaign, information about politics, evaluation of the
presidential candidates and placement of presidential candidates on
various issue dimensions, partisanship and evaluations of the
political parties, knowledge of and evaluation of House candidates,
political participation (including turnout in the presidential
primaries and in the November general election and other forms of
electoral campaign activity), and vote choice for president, the
United States House, and the United States Senate, including second
choice for president. Additional items focused on perceptions of
personal and national economic well-being, positions on social
welfare issues (including government health insurance, federal
budget priorities, and the role of government in the provision of
jobs and a good standard of living), positions on social issues
(including abortion, women's roles, prayer in the schools, the
rights of homosexuals, and the death penalty), racial and ethnic
stereotypes, opinions on affirmative action, attitudes towards
immigrants, opinions about the nation's most important problem,
political predispositions (including moral traditionalism,
political efficacy, egalitarianism, humanitarianism, individualism,
and trust in government), social altruism, social connectedness,
feeling thermometers on a wide range of political figures and
political groups, affinity with various social groups, and detailed
demographic information and measures of religious affiliation and
religiosity. Several new content areas were also added to this
survey, including a core battery of campaign-related items in the
pre-election wave to better understand the dynamics of
congressional campaigns, several questions related to issue
importance and uncertainty both in relation to respondents and to
candidates; an eight-minute module of questions developed by a
consortium of electoral scholars from 52 polities to facilitate
comparative analysis of political attitudes and voting behavior;
new issue items in the areas of crime, gun control, and income
inequality; new items tapping perceptions of environmental
conditions (air quality and the safety of drinking water in the
nation and in the respondent's own community); environmental
priorities (ranging from global warming to cleaning up lakes and
parks); self-placements and placements of candidates and parties on
environmental issues (trading off environmental protection against
jobs and living standards, and supporting or opposing government
environmental regulations on businesses); and the relative
effectiveness of national, state, and local governments in dealing
with environmental problems. Other new items included several
measures of social connectedness and a battery of items on
membership and activity in a wide variety of social, political,
religious, and civic organizations. New media exposure, reception,
and attention items were also introduced, including questions on
talk radio, network and television news, and items asking
respondents to match news anchors with the networks they work for.
Also added was a battery of exposure items for entertainment
television programs as an indirect measure of exposure to campaign
advertisements, as well as a new open-ended item on recollection of
campaign ads and questions on respondent attention to the campaign
in various media.
UNIVERSE: All United States citizens of voting age on or before
November 5, 1996, residing in housing units other than on military
reservations in the 48 coterminous states.
SAMPLING: National multistage area probability sample.
EXTENT OF COLLECTION: 1 data file + machine-readable documentation
(text) + SAS data definition statements + SPSS data definition
statements
EXTENT OF PROCESSING: CONCHK.PR/ MDATA.PR/ UNDOCCHK.PR/ FREQ.PR
DATA FORMAT: Logical Record Length with SAS and SPSS data
definition statements
File Structure: rectangular
Cases: 1,714
Variables: 1,657
Record Length: 2,594
Records Per Case: 1