1976 Time Series Study

About the Dataset

• Time Series Study
• Completions: 2,248 pre-election; 1,909 post-election
• Sample: fresh cross-section and panel
• Modes used: face-to-face
• Weights: V763003

Study Content Highlights

In addition to content on electoral participation, voting behavior, and public opinion, the 1976 ANES contains questions in other areas such as trust, self-esteem, quality of life, and the impact of mass media. Special-interest and topical content includes questions on economic conditions, the 1976 presidential debates, and political activism, together with new questions on the Equal Rights Amendment and new measures evaluating party performance on specific issues.

The study was designed to produce both a representative cross-section of U.S. adult citizens and to complete a continuing empanelment of cases (1972-1974-1976 and 1974-1976).

Impact of media and presidential debates on political learning; perceptions of economic conditions; quality of life; measures of self-esteem and trust.

Study Design Highlights

Besides being a stand-alone time series data collection, in which the full sample comprises a representative cross-section, the 1976 ANES is also, for the empanelled portion of the sample, the final wave in a three-wave study that first began together with the 1972 ANES, and subsequently continued in conjunction with the 1974 ANES. The full panel file of data from these years, the 1972-1976 ANES Series File, also includes some cases not represented in the time series studies.

The sample consisted of panel respondents and fresh cross-section cases. The full 1976 cross-section sample used the 1972 sample frame to combine all housing units having either a non-moving 1972 respondent in residence or a 1974 cross-section respondent at a 1972 address, together with a two-thirds subsample of housing units which 1972 respondents had vacated and a two-thirds subsample of housing units that had zero chance of selection in 1972 or that produced non-responses or pre-election interviews only in 1972. Among 1976 panel respondents, 204 had first been interviewed in the 1974 ANES, and 925 had been interviewed in both the 1972 ANES and 1974 ANES. In addition, some 1976 ANES panel respondents had not been represented in the 1972 ANES or 1974 ANES.

Beginning September 7, interviews using the 73-minute pre-election instrument were conducted prior to Election Day, November 2. The 83-minute post-election interview was administered November 3, 1976-January 30, 1977. Of the 3,191 eligible cases, 2,248 completed pre-election interviews (1,005 panel, 1,243 fresh cross-section), and 1,909 were re-interviewed in the post (922 panel, 987 fresh cross-section).

Weights Summary

V763003 is an integer weight for the full sample of combined panel and fresh cross-section cases, to compensate for the reduced sampling rate used for the fresh cross-section (panel weighted 1 and fresh cross-section cases weighted 1.5).

The weights in the 1976 Time Series Study have an average value of 1.276468 rather than the average value of 1.000000 which is typical of other ANES time series datasets. Users may wish to rescale the 1976 weights to a mean of 1, especially when conducting aggregated analysis over multiple time series datasets, so as not to have the 1976 records be up-weighted by approximately 28% over other time series files. Users can re-scale the 1976 weights by dividing them by 1.276468 so that their mean is 1.000000.