ANES 1989 Pilot Study

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 1989 Pilot Study, like its predecessors, provides an opportunity to refine existing National Election Study measures and to develop and test new instrumentation. These data include new measures of religious identity and the political salience of religion, media exposure and the type of information recalled, and individualism represented by predispositions to autonomy, self-reliance, laissez-faire, and limited government. A significant portion of the study is devoted to experiments contrasting different instrumentation for issue questions. New items on gun control, abortion, and the Alaska oil spill also are included.