I’m excited to introduce Dr. Jana Riess and Dr. Benjamin Knoll.  These two have put together the largest survey of Mormon attitudes ever.  With Mormons being just 2% of the U.S. population, I asked them how randomly sample Mormon attitudes.  Jana and Ben will tell us more.

Ben: We contracted with a firm, who has been a leader in developing these methodologies. It has been an approach that has been used successfully, not only by Pew Research, but other social scientists who have tried to get at Mormons in the population, because for the very reason that you’re talking about, it’s 2%, at best, of the US population. So when we make these telephone surveys, that means that one out of every 50 people, if you’re random digit dialing, is going to be someone who says, “Yes, I’m a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.” That’s a lot of man hours, you’ve get to go through to make so many calls to get several hundred, if not at least 1000 surveys completed there.w
What other issues are involved in putting together a scientific survey?  Check out our conversation…