George Gallup, the man behind the Gallup Poll.
In a May 1948 cover story, TIME dubbed him the “Babe Ruth of the polling profession”—not the only or the first pollster, but the most famous and the one who defined the game, and in doing so changed the history of American politics.
After three years of practice polling, Gallup had assured himself that polls on toothpaste and Politics were one & the same. By 1948, the Gallup Poll organization— then officially called the American Institute of Public Opinion—operated in a dozen countries, influencing everything from the titles of Hollywood movies to Book-of-the-Month Club picks, in addition to its political predictions. By its sheer omnipresence (the Gallup Poll released data to newspapers a whopping four days a week) Gallup became synonymous with polling.
With a Gallup poll readily available, the American media and public came to expect that elections—and so much else—could be correctly predicted. “The argument over whether public-opinion polls are good or bad for a democracy has become somewhat academic —they are obviously here to stay. https://time.com/4568359/george-gallup-polling-history/
Comments