To Talk with Kings.

In this article, the author presents his views on the process of public opinion research. The author says that textbooks on public opinion research are sadly lacking in discussions of the proper technique for interviewing a king. Professional literature abounds with articles designed to prove that research methods grow more hygienic each day and theory more sophisticated. Feelings are easily bruised among Middle Eastern, as indeed among Western, scholars, and the author often faced the unpleasant task of telling a man with admirable academic credentials that he simply did not have the flair for making a good interviewer. Interestingly enough, some of the best people in the Jordan study were young doctors, lawyers, school teachers, and accountants. When set out to do studies in the Arabic world, some experts predicted that such a broad-scale public opinion survey could not be carried out because people would never admit our interviewers into their homes, much less answer the questions.