{{short description|American pollster (1896-1985)}} {{use mdy dates|date=May 2023}} {{Infobox person | name = Archibald Crossley | birth_date = {{birth date|1896|12|07}} | birth_place = Fieldsboro, New Jersey, US | death_date = {{death date and age|1985|05|01|1896|12|07}} | death_place = Princeton, New Jersey, US | education = Princeton University | occupation = Pollster | known_for = Public opinion research }} '''Archibald Maddock Crossley''' (December 7, 1896 – May 1, 1985) was an American pollster, statistician, and pioneer in public opinion research.<ref name=":0">{{citation |last=Dietrich |first=Bryce J. |title=Crossley, Archibald (1896–1985) |year=2008 |url=http://sk.sagepub.com/reference/survey/n118.xml |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Survey Research Methods |pages=170–171 |place=Thousand Oaks |publisher=SAGE Publications, Inc. |doi=10.4135/9781412963947 |isbn=978-1-4129-1808-4 |access-date=2021-05-22|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Along with friends-cum-rivals Elmo Roper and George Gallup, Crossley has been described as one of the fathers of election polling.<ref name=":2" />
==Biography== Crossley was born in Fieldsboro, New Jersey, on December 7, 1896. He attended Princeton University for one year in 1917, dropping out to go to work as a copywriter and researcher for J. H. Cross Company, a small advertising firm in Philadelphia. He returned to Princeton and received his bachelor's degree in psychology in 1950.<ref name=":2">{{Cite news|last=Greer|first=William R.|date=1985-05-02|title=Archibald Crossley Dies at 88; Helped Develop Scientific Polling|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1985/05/02/nyregion/archibald-crosley-dies-at-88-helped-develop-scientific-polling.html|access-date=2021-05-22|issn=0362-4331}}</ref>
Crossley was research director for ''The Literary Digest'' from 1922 to 1926, when he launched his own market research company. In 1929, he developed the Crossley ratings (a term he coined) to gauge the audience size of radio broadcasts.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":3">{{Cite web|date=1985-05-01|title=Polling Pioneer Dies|url=https://apnews.com/article/f0867e067c352c34a480f9b9d321e583|url-status=live|access-date=2021-05-23|website=Associated Press|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210523020714/https://apnews.com/article/f0867e067c352c34a480f9b9d321e583 |archive-date=2021-05-23 }}</ref> Like Elmo Roper and George Gallup, Crossley successfully predicted the outcome of the 1936 United States presidential election. The pollsters used scientific sampling methodologies that proved far more accurate than the ''Literary Digest''{{'s}} straw poll, which had notoriously predicted Franklin D. Roosevelt's defeat (he won in a landslide).<ref>{{cite journal |last=Davison |first=W. Phillips |year=1985 |title=In Memoriam: Archibald Maddock Crossley, 1896-1985 |doi=10.1086/268937 |journal=Public Opinion Quarterly |volume=49 |issue=3 |page=396 |issn=0033-362X}}</ref>
Crossley was instrumental in the establishment of the Market Research Council, the National Council on Public Polls, and the American Association for Public Opinion Research, which he served as president from 1952 to 1953.<ref name=":0" /> He joined the editorial board of ''Public Opinion Quarterly'' in 1944. After Crossley, Roper, and Gallup all wrongly predicted the outcome of the 1948 U.S. presidential election, they developed industry standards for public opinion polls, inaugurating an industry-wide shift from quota sampling to probability sampling.<ref name=":1">{{cite web |title=The Crossleys: Pioneers in the Field of Public Opinion Research |url=https://korbel.du.edu/crossleycenter/crossleys |url-status=live |access-date=2021-05-22 |publisher=Josef Korbel School of International Studies |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210523020715/https://korbel.du.edu/crossleycenter/crossleys |archive-date=2021-05-23}}</ref>
Crossley was the first pollster to study the psychology of questionnaires, such as how phraseology influenced responses. He also crusaded for a stronger code of professional ethics among pollsters, publicly rebuking the Democratic National Committee in 1967 for leaking a private Crossley poll to the press in an attempt to bolster Lyndon B. Johnson's sinking popularity.<ref>{{cite news |last=Folkart |first=Burt A. |date=1985-05-04 |title=Archibald Crossley, Early Pollster, Dies |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-05-04-fi-20774-story.html |url-status=live |access-date=2021-05-22 |work=Los Angeles Times |language=en-US |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210523020713/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-05-04-fi-20774-story.html |archive-date=2021-05-23}}</ref>
==Personal life== Crossley was married to Dorothy Fox Crossley, who died in 1983. Their daughter, Helen Martha Crossley (1921–2016), worked for the United States Information Agency for decades and founded the Crossley Center for Public Opinion Research at the University of Denver in 2012.<ref>{{cite web |title=Helen Crossley |url=https://ropercenter.cornell.edu/pioneers-polling/helen-crossley |url-status=live |access-date=2021-05-23 |publisher=Roper Center for Public Opinion Research |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190607182236/https://ropercenter.cornell.edu/pioneers-polling/helen-crossley |archive-date=2019-06-07}}</ref> Archibald Crossley died at his home in Princeton, New Jersey, on May 1, 1985.<ref name=":3" />
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== * [https://archivessearch.lib.uconn.edu/repositories/2/resources/884 Archibald Crossley Papers] - University of Connecticut Archives & Special Collections
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Crossley, Archibald}} Category:1896 births Category:1985 deaths Category:American political consultants Category:20th-century American statisticians Category:Market researchers Category:People from Fieldsboro, New Jersey Category:People from Princeton, New Jersey Category:Pollsters Category:Princeton University alumni Category:Public opinion