Polling

Dona-Gene Barton’s research and teaching interests involve American political behavior. Drawing heavily on relevant psychological perspectives while keeping the real world of politics in sight, her work focuses on better understanding how and how well citizens use political information to inform their judgments. Her current projects aim to enable improved assessment of the temporal dynamics of opinion formation by exploring the interrelationships among information, campaigns and time. Her research is the first of its kind to use a panel experimental design to better understand the lifespan of information effects as citizens navigate the political world.

Kristen Olson is Leland J. and Dorothy H. Olson Professor in Sociology and the Director of the Bureau of Sociological Research, which specializes in collecting data to address research and evaluation needs, and provides research assistance to the State of Nebraska and UNL faculty, departments, administrative units and students, among other clients. Olson’s research focuses on survey methods, with a particular focus on why measurement, nonresponse, and coverage errors occur in surveys, as well as survey costs.