Literary Digest

(noun)

The Literary Digest was an influential general interest weekly magazine published by Funk & Wagnalls. When the Digest conducted their 1936 election using an inaccurate sample causing them to predict the wrong winner, they lost all credibility and the Digest itself soon went out of business.

Related Terms

Examples of Literary Digest in the following topics:

  • Early Public Opinion Research and Polling

    • In 1916, the Literary Digest embarked on a national survey, partly as a circulation-raising exercise, and correctly predicted Woodrow Wilson's election as president .
    • Mailing out millions of postcards and simply counting the returns, the Digest correctly predicted the victories of Warren Harding in 1920, Calvin Coolidge in 1924, Herbert Hoover in 1929, and Franklin Roosevelt in 1932.
    • The Literary Digest was ignorant of this new bias.
    • The Literary Digest soon went out of business, while polling started to take off.

  • The Importance of Accuracy

    • The importance of accuracy may be illustrated through the example of the Literary Digest Roosevelt-Landon presidential election poll.
    • After correctly predicting the victories of Warren Harding in 1920, Calvin Coolidge in 1924, Herbert Hoover in 1929, and Franklin Roosevelt in 1932, the Literary Digest had established itself as a well-known and well-respected publication.
    • In 1936, the Digest conducted their presidential poll with 2.3 million voters, a huge sample size.
    • The Literary Digest was ignorant of this new bias.
    • The Literary Digest lost its reputation for accuracy and the trust of the readers and soon went out of business.

  • The Civil Rights Acts

    • Specifically, the Act outlawed the practice of requiring otherwise qualified voters to pass literary tests to register to vote.