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We investigate the impact of the polling “bandwagon effect,” which is the tendency for people to modify their beliefs to conform to the majority opinion presented by a poll. While most research on the bandwagon effect centers on voters’ preferences for candidates, we study the impact of polls on public opinion for political issues. Drawing upon social identity theory, we hypothesize that the bandwagon effect impacts those individuals who seek to enhance their connection to their political and national groups. With three unique experiments, we find that strong partisans alter their attitudes to conform to those of their fellow Republicans or Democrats. Interestingly, Americans do not change their attitudes to conform to the opinions of their fellow Americans. We also find that people who change their attitudes appear to be unaware of the influence of the opinion poll.

A systematic error exists in measurement of ultrasound speed in tissue with pulse methods. Frequency-dependent attenuation distorts the incident waveform as it passes through tissue causing an error in determination of speed when the time interval between fixed points on the incident and transmitted waveforms is measured. Two equations have been derived for a generalized pulse in a non-dispersive medium that enable calculation of this error when the peaks of the waveforms or the zero-crossings are used as reference points in the speed measurement. The errors have been calculated for measurement of speed in muscle, liver and fat for path lengths of 5, 10, and 15 cm for two incident pulse shapes. In general, the magnitude of this error is small compared to the biological variation, but may be significant compared to experimental error.