Even then, people can fail to have strong opinions on issues in current debate; I know my opinions are silent on many issues that are ‘salient and important current dilemmas’ in American society.
I remember an acquaintance of mine in high school (maybe it was 8th grade) replied to a teacher’s question with “I’m Pro-who cares”. He was strongly berated by the teacher for not taking a side, when I honestly believe he had no reason to care either way.
IIRC, the study also asked people to score how strongly they held a particular opinion, and found a substantial (though lower) rate of missed swaps for questions they rated as strongly held.
I would not expect that result were genuine indifference among options the only significant factor, although I suppose it’s possible people just mis-report the strengths of their actual opinions.
Even then, people can fail to have strong opinions on issues in current debate; I know my opinions are silent on many issues that are ‘salient and important current dilemmas’ in American society.
I remember an acquaintance of mine in high school (maybe it was 8th grade) replied to a teacher’s question with “I’m Pro-who cares”. He was strongly berated by the teacher for not taking a side, when I honestly believe he had no reason to care either way.
IIRC, the study also asked people to score how strongly they held a particular opinion, and found a substantial (though lower) rate of missed swaps for questions they rated as strongly held.
I would not expect that result were genuine indifference among options the only significant factor, although I suppose it’s possible people just mis-report the strengths of their actual opinions.