Who is the President of Russia?
” But 60% correctly selected Putin when the question was asked this way in the test survey: “Can you tell me who is the president of Russia? Is it Boris Yeltsin, Vladimir Putin, Mikhail Gorbachev, or is it someone else?” Similarly, only 21% correctly answered that Robert Gates is the secretary of defense in the February survey, compared with 37% who did so when asked to choose whether Gates was the defense secretary, a senator from Michigan, the chairman of General Motors or held another job. On other questions, the differences attributable to alternative formats were less dramatic. About three-in-four (76%) were able to volunteer unaided that the Democrats controlled the House of Representatives. When on the test respondents were asked which political party controlled the House, followed by the prompt: “Is it the Democratic Party or the Republican Party,” 82% answered correctly, a six-percentage point increase. The results do not suggest possible explanations for the differences. Some
