ANES 1998 Pilot Study

The 1998 Pilot Study focused on examining and improving the methodology used for future studies in the American National Election Studies series. The study provided an opportunity to test new instrumentation, fine-tune measurement of core concepts, and try out some innovative survey methods. The 1998 Pilot Study, conducted September 8 through November 3, 1998, marked the first time a study was conducted during an election season. Three high-profile gubernatorial contests in California, Illinois, and Georgia were used as a basis for testing instrumentation that can only be analyzed in the context of an electoral campaign and for investigating how to improve the election study's capacity to illuminate the impact of campaigns. Among the concepts covered in the study are political interest, knowledge, ideology, efficacy, trust, mobilization, issue attitudes/awareness keyed to actual campaigns, campaign interest, participation in a campaign, media use, candidate awareness, partisanship, vote intention, certainty of vote, and social context and communication. Several additional measures were piloted, including what part of the day the respondent tended to watch television, new social context and communication variables, need for evaluation, group mobilization, public mood, a new affirmative action variable, perceived tone of the campaign, awareness of campaign issues, and whether the respondent owned stock.