This study is part of a time-series collection of national surveys fielded continuously since 1948. The election studies are designed to collect data on Americans' social backgrounds, enduring political predispositions, social and political values, perceptions and evaluations of groups and candidates, opinions on questions of public policy, and participation in political life. The questionnaires contained both closed and open-ended questions covering a wide range of topics. The study inquired about general political attitudes as well as the attitudes and behaviors pertinent to the 1956 presidential election. Each respondent was interviewed both before and after the election date. In the pre-election survey, respondents were asked about their attitudes toward political parties, candidates, and other specific issues, as well as personal data and some political history. The post-election interview focused on the actual vote and reasons for the vote. It also obtained further personal data and asked non-political attitudinal questions (Form C) of a sub-sample of 579 respondents.

The individuals interviewed were a representative cross-section of persons of voting age living in private households in the United States. The 12 largest metropolitan areas of the United States were drawn with certainty to represent themselves. The rest of the country was divided into 54 strata. From each stratum a primary sampling unit consisting of a county or group of counties was drawn with probability proportional to size. The selection procedure within these 66 primary sampling units ultimately yielded a sample of private households within which respondents were designated for interview by an objective procedure of selection that allowed no substitutions.

ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection: Performed consistency checks.; Standardized missing values.; Performed recodes and/or calculated derived variables.; Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes..

face-to-face interview The 1956 Election Study also served as the first wave of a 3-wave panel study; the other two waves are represented by the ANES 1958 Time Series Study (ICPSR 7215) and the ANES 1960 Time Series Study (ICPSR 7216). For further information please see the ANES Data Center Web site.

Response Rates: The response rate was 85 percent. The final dataset includes 1762 cases. The reduction from the original sample of 2475 includes expected losses in interviewing and another 200 respondents who were interviewed only once and hence were not included in the final dataset.

United States citizens 18 years of age and older living in private households. Smallest Geographic Unit: county

American National Election Study (ANES) Series

Datasets: DS1: Dataset