In 2025, researchers in 15 different countries surveyed and interviewed national politicians in a face-to-face setting. The project also undertook a parallel survey of citizens in these countries in order to benchmark politicians’ responses.
POLPOP III builds on the findings from previous rounds. In particular, it shifts the focus to understand more about the dynamic process of politicians’ evaluations of and responses to public opinion. Survey questions and experiments are designed to address, among othter things, the following topics:
- The accuracy of politicians’ perceptions of the direction of change in public opinion over time
- Politicians’ perceptions of their ability to change public opinion
- How differences in the source and tone of citizens' communications towards politicians affect their evaluation of such information
- To what extent politicians agree with citizens on the most persuasive arguments in favor or against particular policies
- The circumstances under which politicians and citizens think it is most excusable to break pledges
- How politicians think of topical societal problems like climate change and housing, and how their views compare to those of citizens
The project is funded by the European Union in the framework of an ERC Advanced Grant “How politicians evaluate public opinion”.
