June Sun, 2003

POLITICAL KNOWLEDGE IN NEW JERSEY Or If Ignorance Is Bliss, We’re One Happy State

The State Senate is equally divided between Democrats and Republicans. We start with these basic facts of political life in Trenton, because apparently they are preciously guarded secrets. In fact, only four percent of the state’s adult residents get all three of these answers correct when asked on the most recent Star-Ledger/Eagleton- Rutgers Poll. While two-thirds correctly identify Governor James McGreevey as a Democrat, just one-in-five know that Democrats control the lower house and a similar 18 percent know that the upper house is tied in its partisan composition.

Read More

May Fri, 2003

HOW WOMEN AND MEN ARE DIFFERENT: WOMEN MORE EMOTIONAL; MEN MORE AGGRESSIVE

Why ask? Well, in a survey conducted in March of 2000 we found that almost everyone in New Jersey (90%) believes “men and women have fundamentally different natures.” We wanted to find out more about this. In what ways did people see women and men as different? Was this something that men and women would be in agreement about? How did men view women, and women view men? How did each view his/her own sex? We took a look at this in our last survey, putting these 16 questions to a statewide sample of 1,002 men and women (501 of each) interviewed between April 24 and May 4.

Read More

May Sun, 2003

NEW JERSEY AND RODNEY DANGERFIELD: PERFECT TOGETHER

For over 30 years the Eagleton Institute has been surveying New Jersey residents to explore what we think about our state, its politics and policies, culture and quality of life. Now, in partnership with the Newark Star-Ledger, we have for the first time asked people living elsewhere in the country for their views of New Jersey. Their responses suggest the many years of being the butt of jokes by Johnny Carson, Jay Leno, Woody Allen and others have taken their toll. Or, we get no respect.

Read More