Gallup, George Horace, 1901–84, American public opinion statistician, originator of the Gallup poll, b. Jefferson, Iowa. After teaching journalism at Drake Univ. (1929–31) and at Northwestern Univ. (1931–32), he founded the American Institute of Public Opinion (1935) and the Audience Research Institute (1939), both at Princeton, N.J. His Guide to Public Opinion Polls appeared in 1944. Gallup's polls are most famous for preelection surveys. The 1936 presidential elections brought public attention to his organization because of the accuracy of its predictions. Since then the Gallup poll has had a good record, except for its prediction in 1948 that Thomas Dewey would defeat President Truman.
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