Qualitative Election Study of Britain Party Leader Evaluations Database, 2010-2019

Winters, Kristi and Carvalho, Edzia and Oliver, Thom (2022). Qualitative Election Study of Britain Party Leader Evaluations Database, 2010-2019. [Data Collection]. Colchester, Essex: UK Data Service. 10.5255/UKDA-SN-856002

The Qualitative Election Study of Britain (QESB) Party Leader Evaluation Database 2010 – 2019 contains 4,119 words and phrases that evaluate British political party leaders. The data were collected during pre-election focus groups and interviews conducted with participants from England, Scotland and Wales, during the General Election campaigns of 2010, 2015, 2017, and 2019. For the party leader evaluation pre-election component, participants were provided with head shot pictures of the party leaders (depending on where in Britain they lived) taken from the party’s own website. They were instructed to write down words or phrases they associate with each person, and indicate if that association was positive, negative or neutral. The data structure mirrors data structures used in sentiment analysis. Each tab contains a column listing participant’s’ words and phrases as a string variable; the next two columns list the election year and leader, affective evaluations (relating to, arising from, or influencing feelings or emotions) as a string variable, and the affective evaluation as a numeric scale from negative –1 to positive +1. These data are suitable for sentiment and discourse analysis, or analytic generalization – establishing that a concept exists within a population regardless of the number of people who hold it. In addition, a supplementary dataset is provided of leaders’ evaluation data from a study with residents of Dundee after the Scottish Independence Referendum in 2014 (N = 287).

Data description (abstract)

Data creators:

Creator Name	Affiliation	ORCID (as URL)
Winters Kristi	GESIS Leibniz Institute for Social Sciences	http://0000-0001-9405-8059
Carvalho Edzia	University of Dundee	http://0000-0001-9441-5829
Oliver Thom	University of the West of England	https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6879-0550.

Sponsors:

The British Academy, The Carnegie Foundation, UK Data Archive, GESIS Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences, University of Dundee, UWE Bristol

Topic classification:

Politics

Keywords:

POLITICAL LEADERS, POLITICAL ATTITUDES, PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS, BRITISH POLITICAL PARTIES, ELECTIONS, REFERENDUMS, ELECTION DATA

Project title:

Qualitative Election Study of Britain Party Leader Evaluations Database 2010– 2019, Plus 2014 Supplement

Grant holders:

Dr. Kristi Winters, Dr. Edzia Carvalho

Date published:

07 Oct 2022 07:45

Last modified:

11 Nov 2022 14:11

Coverage and Methodology

Collection period:

Date from:	Date to:
2010	2019

Geographical area:

England, Scotland, and Wales

Country:

United Kingdom

Spatial unit:

No Spatial Unit

Data collection method:

The data in this dataset were sourced from the Qualitative Election Study of Britain. Focus groups and interviews were conducted in England, Scotland and Wales pre- and post-election. The 2010 –2015 participants were recruited into the QESB panel using a convenience sample from e-mail solicitation plus referrals, and from 2017, Facebook ads were used for recruitment. The PIs over-recruited in each wave and invited participants according to a quota to achieve diversity in partisan affiliation, age, geographic location and employment. To diversify the participant pool, top-up interviews were used to collect data from voters who could not attend an in-person focus groups. Further, online focus groups were used for the same reason. Online participants completed the evaluation exercise before their focus group or interview using a Word or Google document. The leaders evaluation pre-election exercise was conducted in the same way in each wave. Participants were provided a sheet with head shot pictures of the party leaders (depending on where in Britain they lived). Party leader pictures were taken from the party’s own website. Participants were instructed to write down words or phrases they associate with each person, and indicate if that association was positive, negative or neutral. Following the silent brainstorming exercise, the focus group moderator would lead the group in a discussion of the positives, negatives and neutral qualities of each leader. The data included in this dataset only includes the words and phrases written down by the participants, and not the subsequent discussion. For completeness, we include 2014 data, which were collected in the aftermath of the Scottish Independence Referendum and only took place in Dundee. In all other respects, the data collection method was the same as in the main QESB waves.

Observation unit:

Text unit

Kind of data:

Numeric, Text

Type of data:

Qualitative and mixed methods data, Time series data

Resource language:

English

Access and Administration

Data sourcing, processing and preparation:

The data structure mirrors data structures used in sentiment analysis. Each tab contains a column listing participant’s’ words and phrases as a string variable;, the next two columns list the election year and leader, affective evaluations (relating to, arising from, or influencing feelings or emotions) as a string variable, and the affective evaluation as a numeric scale from negative –1 to positive +1. The data processing team made notes on unusual or double coded words or phrases in a separate tab called Outliers. Decisions on how outliers were coded are documented there. These data are suitable for sentiment and discourse analysis, or analytic generalization – establishing that a concept exists within a population regardless of the number of people who hold it. QESB participants were recruited for theoretical reasons – i.e. voters’ attitudes and opinions – and not for representativeness, therefore statistical generalization is not possible from these data. Further, some participants contributed several words, while others contributed fewer, therefore simplistic frequency distribution comparisons cannot be made.

Rights owners:

Name	Affiliation	ORCID (as URL)
Winters Kristi	GESIS Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences	http://0000-0001-9405-8059
Carvalho Edzia	University of Dundee	http://0000-0001-9441-5829

Contact:

Name	Email	Affiliation	ORCID (as URL)
Winters, Kristi	k.winters@gesis.org	GESIS Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences	http://0000-0001-9405-8059
Carvalho, Edzia	edziacarvalho@gmail.com	University of Dundee	http://0000-0001-9441-5829