George Gallup

George Gallup was a man who asked questions.

He wanted to know what people thought. He used a special way to pick people to ask.

This way helped him guess who would win elections. He was right about one big election in 1936. He was wrong about another one in 1948.

He even started a group for people all over the world. He also helped start many groups for his work.

He was a very busy man.

George Gallup was a man who studied what people think.

He was born in Iowa in 1901. As a teen, he delivered milk. He used that money to start a school paper.

He studied hard at the University of Iowa. He earned his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. there. Later, he taught journalism at several colleges. He moved to New York City in 1932. In 1935, he started his own polling company. A poll is a way to measure public opinion.

Gallup became famous in 1936. He correctly guessed that Franklin Roosevelt would win the election. He did this by picking a small, smart group of people. He did not need millions of answers to be right.

He did make one big mistake in 1948. He thought Thomas Dewey would win the election. But Harry S. Truman actually won. Gallup stopped his polls too early that year.

He also helped start groups for pollsters around the world. He died in Switzerland in 1984. He is buried in Princeton Cemetery.

George Gallup was a man who wanted to know what people thought.

He was born in 1901 in Jefferson, Iowa. His father was a dairy farmer. As a teenager, Gallup delivered milk to earn money. He used those earnings to start a newspaper at his high school. He later studied very hard at the University of Iowa. He earned a B.A., an M.A., and a Ph.D. there. He also served as the editor for the campus newspaper, The Daily Iowan.

Gallup spent much of his life teaching and researching. He was the head of journalism at Drake University in Des Moines. Later, he was a professor at Northwestern University in Illinois. In 1932, he moved to New York City to work in advertising. He eventually joined Columbia University as a professor of journalism. In 1935, he started his own company called the American Institute of Public Opinion. He first got interested in polling while helping his mother-in-law, Ola Babcock Miller. She ran for Secretary of State in Iowa in 1932.

His most famous moment came during the 1936 election. Many people thought the Literary Digest magazine would be right. That magazine used over two million questionnaires to guess the winner. However, Gallup used a smaller, more carefully chosen group of 50,000 people. His method was more representative of the voters. He correctly predicted that Franklin Roosevelt would defeat Alf Landon. This success made his new organization very famous across the nation.

Not every guess was perfect, though. In 1948, Gallup's organization made a big mistake. They predicted that Thomas Dewey would beat Harry S. Truman. They thought Dewey would win by 5% to 15%. Instead, Truman won the election by 4.5%. Gallup thought the error happened because he stopped polling three weeks too early. He had not accounted for Truman's unexpected comeback. This event was a very difficult moment for his company.

Gallup helped build many groups for people who study opinions. In 1947, he started the Gallup International Association. He also worked with others to form the Market Research Council. In 1948, he and Claude E. Robinson started Gallup & Robinson. By 1958, his work was grouped into The Gallup Organization. He died of a heart attack in 1984 in Switzerland.

He is buried in Princeton Cemetery. His son, George Gallup Jr., was also a writer and pollster.

George Horace Gallup was an American pioneer of survey sampling techniques. He is best known as the inventor of the Gallup poll. This is a statistically based survey used to measure public opinion. Public opinion refers to the views held by a large group of people. Gallup's work allowed researchers to understand what a population thought without asking every single person. This method changed how politics and advertising work in the modern world.

To understand his method, one must understand the mechanism of representative sampling. Instead of asking millions of people, Gallup used a smaller, carefully chosen group. This group acts as a representative sample of the entire electorate. If the sample is chosen correctly, the results reflect the views of the whole population. This process relies on statistics to ensure the small group matches the larger group's characteristics. It is a way to find the "pulse" of a nation through careful math.

Gallup's career involved several distinct stages of academic and professional growth. He began in academia, earning a B.A., an M.A., and a Ph.D. from the University of Iowa. He served as the head of the journalism department at Drake University. Later, he became a professor of journalism and advertising at Northwestern University. He also taught journalism at Columbia University in New York City. In 1935, he transitioned from teaching to business by forming the American Institute of Public Opinion.

His interest in polling began with a personal connection in 1932. He performed polling work for his mother-in-law, Ola Babcock Miller. She was a candidate for Iowa Secretary of State. She won her election during the Democratic landslide of 1932. This success sparked Gallup's deep interest in political science and public opinion. He moved to New York in 1932 to work for the advertising agency Young and Rubicam. There, he eventually served as a vice president from 1937 to 1947.

Gallup achieved national fame through a major statistical victory in 1936. During the U.S. Presidential election, the Literary Digest magazine conducted a massive poll. They returned over two million questionnaires to guess the winner. However, the Literary Digest was incorrect about the outcome. Gallup's organization used only 50,000 more selectively chosen respondents. Despite the smaller size, his sample was more representative. Gallup correctly predicted that Franklin Roosevelt would defeat Alf Landon.

However, his methods faced a significant challenge during the 1948 election. His organization predicted that Thomas Dewey would defeat Harry S. Truman. The prediction suggested a Dewey victory margin between 5% and 15%. In reality, Truman won the election by 4.5%. Gallup attributed this error to a specific timing issue. He had ended his polling three weeks before Election Day. This meant his data failed to capture Truman's unexpected comeback in the final weeks.

Gallup spent his later years building the infrastructure for modern research. In 1947, he launched the Gallup International Association to connect global polling groups. He worked with colleagues like Elmo Roper and Archibald Crossley to establish professional organizations. These included the Market Research Council and the American Association for Public Opinion Research. In 1958, he organized his various operations into The Gallup Organization. He died of a heart attack in 1984 in Switzerland. He is buried in Princeton Cemetery, leaving a legacy that includes his son, George Gallup Jr., who also became a pollster.