User:W3steve/Mervin Field

For other individuals of the same name, see Mervin Field.

Mervin Field
Born	1920? Princeton, New JerseyUnited States
Occupation	Businessman
Known for	Founder, Field Research Corporation

Mervin Field is an American pollster of public opinion in the state of California

• attended Princeton High School in New Jersey

• attended Rutgers University
• attended University of Missouri
• a student of George Gallup
• met George Gallup in 1937
• a pioneer in political polling techniques. (his first survey was his high school's class president election in 1938 or thereabouts)
• Established the Field Research Corporation in 1945
• Established the Field Poll in 1947 (as The California Poll).

The Bradley Effect

Field infamously predicted that Ben Bradley would beat George Deukmejian in the 1982 California governor's race. Field posited race as a reason for his poll's error.

External links

• the Science Literacy Project has a bio on Field
• The Field Research Corporation
• The Field (California) Poll
• The Field Poll Online
• The Field (California) Poll archives stored at UCSD

Category:American people Category:American businesspeople Category:American pollsters Category:People from California Category:People from the San Francisco Bay Area Category:???? births

various snippets:

Field Research Corporation is a full-service, value-added custom research firm founded in 1945 by Mervin Field.

Susan Rasky of UC Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism, and former Congressional correspondent for the New York Times: "Mervin Field: California's Pollster and Interpreter to the Nation." Rasky discussed her on going life-interview series with Mervin Field, who was a student of George Gallup and also a pioneer in political polling techniques.

"Mervin Field, California's most trusted pollster, decided he wanted to go into survey research after meeting George Gallup in 1937 when Field was a student at Princeton High School in New Jersey. Field began polling California in 1946. Scrupulously nonpartisan, he declined to do polls for candidates and sold his surveys to newspapers. [ ... ] Field's surveys were officially called the "California Poll" but were popularly known as the "Field Poll." In 1992, Mark DiCamillo became director of the poll and formally renamed the survey the Field Poll."

Mervin Field

In 1937, as a student in high school in Princeton, New Jersey, Mervin Field first became infected with the concept and activity of survey research when in a chance occurrence he was introduced to the polling pioneer, Dr. George Gallup. Soon after, Mr. Field conducted his first poll which measured student preferences during the school’s senior class presidency campaign.

After attending Rutgers University and the University of Missouri, Mr. Field founded Field Research Corporation (FRC) in 1946, and The Field Poll in 1947. Since 1956, The Field Poll and FRC have maintained a continuing relationship with the University of California and California State University campuses wherein all of The Field Poll survey data is regularly deposited.

While Mr. Field is best known for his work in the political and public policy area, a great deal of his professional time during his long and still active career has been devoted to the direction and involvement in hundreds of marketing and consumer research projects conducted by FRC. These studies have covered a wide range of topics: consumer behavior for a variety of products and services, reaction to various forms of advertising, measures of different media audiences, public relations effectiveness, corporate image, trade and dealer surveys, and studies among employees, stockholders, executives and community influentials.

Mark DiCamillo, Field's current director

The Field Poll typically produces 30 to 50 reports a year on social, political and other policy issues. An independent, non-partisan, media-sponsored public opinion news service

The Field Poll inaugurated the speculation that led to the baseless Bradley Effect theory when, after the 1982 election, Field said "race was a factor in the Bradley loss" (AP 11-4-82). Mervin Field cited no data, but only speculated that white conservative voters of both parties were more undecided and that he may have over-represented minority voters in his polling. Thus, the Bradley Effect was born amidst some major polling errors and a confusing array of mixed predictions, hardly a firm foundation to construct a theory.

Here's the real source:

The Field Poll inaugurated the speculation that led to the baseless Bradley Effect theory when, after the 1982 election, Field said "race was a factor in the Bradley loss" (AP 11-4-82). Mervin Field cited no data, but only speculated that white conservative voters of both parties were more undecided and that he may have over-represented minority voters in his polling. Thus, the Bradley Effect was born amidst some major polling errors and a confusing array of mixed predictions, hardly a firm foundation to construct a theory.