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POP today releases on schedule via the POP Site the results of our surveys on people's most familiar political figures. This survey has been conducted for many years, but its results were only released through our publication POP Express in the past, until October last year when we began to release the results online. In between 1994 and 2005, our "People's most familiar political figures" surveys were conducted and released in the form of "Top 10 political figures", using the same method as our usual "Top 10" or "Top 5" series, which involved both naming and rating stages. Starting from October 2005, we decided to simplify the "Top 10 political figures" survey by just recording and analyzing the "naming" results, because we have already developed over time many rating surveys which covered the ratings of CE, Government officials, members of Legislative and Executive Councils, and so on. As for the rating part, we decided only to conduct supplementary rating surveys on those who are listed among the top 10 most popular figures but who are not covered in our other rating surveys. Besides, also different from the other "Top 10" rating series, we introduced rankings from 1 to 50 for "people's most familiar political figures", as well as average accumulative rankings calculated from the past 10 surveys which spanned over nearly five years, in order to indicate the ups-and-downs of these political figures in the long run. Please refer to our POP Site for details. Herewith the contact information of our latest survey. As a general practice, all figures in the latest survey have been weighted according to provisional figures obtained from the Census and Statistics Department regarding the gender-age distribution of the Hong Kong population at the end of 2006:
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^ The earliest of the past 10 surveys was conducted in October 2-7, 2002. For each survey, those who ranked 50 or beyond and those not on the list are counted as 50th in our calculation of average rankings.
* Since the percentages of respondents who could name Anson Chan, Leung Kwok-hung and Rafael Hui were all 11.2% and they ranked 9th, and the 10th rank does not exist.
In our naming survey conducted in mid-April, respondents could name, unaided, up to 10 political figures whom they knew best. Donald Tsang, Martin Lee, Henry Tang, Rita Fan, and James Tien were the top five. The corresponding percentages of respondents who could name these figures were 33%, 31%, 29%, 27% and 22%. The 6th to 8th ranks fell to Alan Leong, Selina Chow, and Arthur Li respectively. Their recognition rates were 17%, 13% and 12%. Anson Chan, Leung Kwok-hung and Rafael Hui placed at the 9th rank. Their corresponding recognition rates were all 11%. Please refer to the relevant table for the rest of the list. For easy reference, the POP Site has already displayed the results of all naming surveys conducted since April 1999.
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Commentary
Robert Ting-Yiu Chung, Director of Public Opinion Programme, observed, "The purpose of studying people's most familiar figures over time is to use the ups and downs of these figures to indicate the changing political ecology. According to our latest survey, Donald Tsang, Martin Lee, Henry Tang, Rita Fan and James Tien obviously are the most familiar political figures in Hong Kong, leaving aside people's support of them. Alan Leong, because of his participation in the CE election, has surged in popularity from an average ranking of 31.3 over the past 10 surveys to the 6th position registered in this survey. On the other hand, Anson Chan's ranking dropped from 2nd last time to 9th this time, while Regina Ip dropped from 11th last time to 36th this time, as part of the changing political ecology. It should be noted, however, that our ranking of 'people's most familiar political figures' is based on our surveys which requested respondents to name local political figures without prompting. This kind of familiarity measurement is not the same as prompted ratings. In other words, those high on the list may not be the most supported figures, while those lower down may have a different ranking if we use a prompting method. However, those who scored best in unprompted surveys are no doubt the most well-known political figures in Hong Kong."
News about POP
POP's normal practice is to release the results of our regular surveys every Tuesday afternoon via our POP Site, except during public holidays, each time with a forecast of the items to be released in the next 7 days. According to schedule, our next release of regular survey findings will be May 15, 2007, Tuesday, between 1pm to 2 pm, when the latest popularity figures of CE Donald Tsang and Principal Officials under the accountability system will be released.
Our general practice is to answer all questions on the research design of the surveys published in the POP Site as soon as we receive them, but we will not further comment on the findings. We welcome questions for follow-up purpose, please email them to us at <[email protected]>. We will keep such an arrangement under constant review, suggestions most welcome. Please note that everything carried in the POP Site does not represent the stand of the University of Hong Kong. Dr Robert Ting-Yiu Chung, Director of POP, is responsible for everything posted herewith, except for column articles which represent the stand of their authors.
Since January 2006, we have included in our regular press releases a small educational section for the purpose of sharing our research experience with the readers and the general public, and the subject of our education section today is "About HKUPOP".
About HKUPOP
People's most familiar political figures survey
HKUPOP conducted the first "Top 10 political figures naming survey" in April 1994, in order to study people's knowledge with political figures. Same as other "Top 10" and "Top 5" series, we take it to be part of our social responsibility to conduct such surveys, not because of any political preferences. We have explained the development of this series of surveys in our press release of October 24, 2006. Today, we post it again, so that readers can refresh such development.
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In April 1994, HKUPOP began our regular naming and rating surveys of "Top 10 political figures", including Hong Kong people's recognition and extent of support towards different local political figures. Because we have gradually developed over time many rating surveys which covered the ratings of CE and Principal Officials under the accountability system, the top 10 Legislative Councillors, people's most familiar non-official members of the Executive Council, the top 10 members of the HKSARG Preparatory Committee, and so on, in order to avoid duplications and to spare more resources and manpower for other survey topics, in October 2005, we decided to concentrate only on recording and analyzing the "naming" results. As for the rating part, we decided only to conduct supplementary rating surveys on those who are listed among the top 10 most popular figures but who are not covered in our other rating surveys. Besides, as different from the other "Top 10" rating series, we also introduced rankings from 1 to 50 for "people's most familiar political figures", as well as average accumulative rankings calculated from the past 10 surveys which spanned over nearly five years, in order to indicate the ups-and-downs of these political figures in the long run.
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From the beginning to December 1999, our "Top 10 political figures" survey, the forerunner of our "most familiar political figures" survey, was conducted once every 4 months. It was then gradually changed to once every 6 months in order to match with society's development. The question wordings used in the 1994 surveys were: "Please name up to 10 politicians that you are most familiar with." From 1995 onwards, they were changed to: "Please name up to 10 political figures that you are most familiar with."
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Regarding sample size, from the beginning to April 2000, the sample size was set at slightly over 500. From October 2000 onwards, it was increased to at least 1,000.
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The findings of "Top 10 political figures" surveys since September 1996 were published in our newsletter POP Express. After our HKU POP Site was established in June 2000, this survey is released online today for the first time, while previous findings published in our POP Express have also been uploaded on-line in various formats.
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