David Sterrett
Pronouns: He/Him
David is a senior research scientist in The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. He has significant experience designing and managing complex multi-mode surveys and combining quantitative research findings with in-depth qualitative interviews.
David has helped lead a wide range of public affairs research projects at NORC. Since 2015, he has served as a manager for the Media Insight Project, a collaboration between the American Press Institute and The AP-NORC Center. The research has examined a range of issues related to news habits and attitudes such as what leads the public to trust news and what factors are associated with paying for news.
David helped develop and oversee the multi-mode methodology for AP VoteCast, a new approach to understanding the American electorate that combines a probability sample of registered voters with a large opt-in sample of registered voters.
He has also managed a number of projects featuring collaborations with academic researchers such as the UChicago Harris/AP-NORC Poll, a study on democratic representation with researchers from Stanford University and the University of California, Santa Barbara, and the 2016 GenForward surveys of adults 18-30 years old that were a project of the Black Youth Project at the University of Chicago.
David has published scholarly work in multiple peer-reviewed journals and has expertise in synthesizing complex social science research so that it is easily accessible for journalists and the public. He frequently presents at academic and survey research conferences, and is actively involved with both AAPOR and MAPOR.
Prior to joining NORC, he spent four years conducting survey research at the University of Illinois at Chicago and five years working as a journalist in Chicago and San Diego.
Quick Links
Education
PhD
University of Illinois at Chicago
BS
Northwestern University
Project Contributions
Publications
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Americans Differentiate Between Russia’s Leadership and Its People
NORC Article | August 24, 2023
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opens in new tab"Age Differences in Mental Health from May through August 2020 among U.S. Adults: Trajectories and the Role of Pandemic, Lifestyle, and Social Factors."
Journal Article | July 1, 2022
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opens in new tab"Transitions from Telephone Surveys to Self-Administered and Mixed-Mode Surveys: AAPOR Task Force Report."
Journal Article | December 9, 2021
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opens in new tab"Should Religion Play a Role in Government Policies?"
Project Report | December 6, 2019
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opens in new tab"Survey Experiments and Changes in Question Wording in Repeated Cross-Sectional Surveys."
Book | October 17, 2019
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opens in new tab"Who Shared It?: Deciding What News to Trust on Social Media."
Journal Article | July 2, 2019
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opens in new tab"The Link between Government Performance and Attitudes toward the U.S. Democratic System."
Project Report | May 12, 2019
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opens in new tab"How the Urban/Rural Political Divide Plays Out in America's Suburbs."
Project Report | March 11, 2019