Public Opinion Studies Center Launches "The Asan Daily Poll"

In the interest of better understanding the relationship between global and domestic events, Korean public opinion, and policy response, the Public Opinion Studies Center at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies has launched the Asan Daily Poll. This survey tracks the attitudes of the Korean public on the following major indices on a daily basis:

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• Presidential approval
  
• Presidential candidate support rates (multi-candidate and head-to-head)
  
• Party support
  
• Societal and economic issues
  

Because of the methodology—based on a 3 day rolling average—it will capture the effect of unexpected global events on Korean public opinion across a variety of topics in near real-time. The survey will also feature monthly tracking of other themes such as attitudes on foreign relations and events and issues related to leadership, immigration, education, and morality.

Initially, these results will be distributed daily via press release and will be available on the Asan Institute’s website in the near future. After one month, weekly results will be issued every Monday morning, presenting the daily changes for the previous week on key issues. (Daily results will still be available on the Asan website.) While the weekly report will deliver numbers without interpretation or analysis, the Asan Monthly Survey Report will continue to be issued at the beginning of each month, offering in-depth analysis on what these numbers mean in a broader context.

The Asan Daily Poll will collect data from 1,000 respondents over 3 days via landline and mobile phones using the Random Digit Dialing method. The data is then weighted by gender, region, and age to create a nationally representative sample. Furthermore, because the Asan Daily Poll is conducted regularly using the same sampling method, weighting, and question wording, it will reduce errors that result when different research organizations conduct surveys separately.

The 3-day Rolling Average: How It Works

The 3-day rolling average is a method which gathers data over the span of 3 days, with those results released two days later.. That is, results announced on Monday cover the survey conducted on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Results announced on Tuesday reflect the results from Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. This method minimizes the lag between events and getting a survey into the field. It will also be more sensitive to public sentiment on those events and track how it changes over time.

*Inquiries can be directed to Karl Friedhoff (klf@asaninst.org / (02) 3701-7328).