Survey Data in Polarized Times: Insights from Viewpoint Alberta
The first webinar of our new HSS Spotlight series will be held on Friday, September 26, 2025 from 10:00-11:00am MT in-person in Tory Building 1-061 or virtually over Zoom. Dr. Feo Snagovsky and Evan Walker in the Political Science department will be discussing Survey Data in Polarized Times with a special focus on the Viewpoint Alberta Surveys, collected as part of the UofA Common Ground initiative.
Surveys remain one of the most widely used tools for studying how people think and act. This session examines their strengths and limitations in understanding political attitudes and behaviours, particularly in contexts of high political polarization. We will consider the practical and methodological difficulties of online survey research, including recruitment, response bias, data quality, and tracking attitudes over time. Drawing on evidence from Viewpoint Alberta, a large, multi-year survey project examining the political attitudes and behaviours of Albertans, we will discuss lessons for designing surveys that balance rigour with feasibility in contemporary political research.
This talk is sponsored by the Digital Research Alliance of Canada and the Transforming Research for Social Impact Hub at the University of Alberta. For more details please see the event page