WAPOR 79th Annual Conference

The 79th Annual WAPOR Conference will take place on October 26-29, 2026 in Mexico City, Mexico. The annual WAPOR meeting is a leading forum for discussing advancements in public opinion and survey research, providing an opportunity for networking, learning about the latest research trends, and engaging with diverse experts from across the globe. The venue for the 2026 WAPOR conference is Barceló México Reforma Hotel.  Abstract submission is open through May 31. Abstracts are accepted in English, Spanish, or Portuguese. Proposals of papers, panels, and posters are invited for submission. For more information, please, see the submission guidelines below. The 2026 conference will be conducted in person. The event will be led by the WAPOR Conference Chair Wolfgang Aschauer (Paris-Lodron University of Salzburg, Austria).

Conference Theme

Public Opinion Research in an Emerging Multipolar World Order

Today, the world is characterized by a complex and contested multipolarity in which economic and political power are increasingly distributed across regions. Across Africa, geopolitical competition intersects with regional integration and diverse political trajectories. China and India anchor Asia’s rise; the Middle East is marked by overlapping rivalries and temporary alignments among powers such as Turkey, Iran, and Saudi Arabia; Russia’s assertive military actions in its neighborhood, combined with strategic use of energy resources, have reshaped its relations with Europe and heightened geopolitical tensions.; and Latin America, with countries like Brazil and Mexico, seeks a more autonomous role amid shifting global alignments. Simultaneously, the resurgence of authoritarian movements and deepening ideological cleavages within and between states challenge the assumptions of liberal democracy and global consensus.

This new landscape demands a reassessment of how public opinion research is organized and conceptualized and used to compare attitudes across societies with different historical trajectories and systems of governance. Questions of cross-cultural comparability, conceptual equivalence, and the interpretation of global and regional opinions toward democracy, globalization, or international institutions have become more complex in an era of competing political narratives and epistemic pluralism.

Methodologically, multipolarity challenges the long-standing dominance of Western survey traditions and sampling models. Comparative research must now engage with multi-polar epistemologies—approaches that reflect diverse linguistic, cultural, and ideological contexts, as well as non-Western understandings of collective identity and social cohesion. Digital transformations, new social media environments, and regional information spheres further challenge contemporary public opinion research in modes of conceptualizing, measuring and comparing attitudes across the world.

Methodologically, multipolarity challenges the long-standing dominance of Western survey traditions and sampling models. Comparative research must now engage with multi-polar epistemologies—approaches that reflect diverse linguistic, cultural, and ideological contexts, as well as non-Western understandings of collective identity and social cohesion. Digital transformations, new social media environments, and regional information spheres further challenge contemporary public opinion research in modes of conceptualizing, measuring and comparing attitudes across the world.

For WAPOR 2026, it is essential to reflect more deeply on how high-quality public opinion research can be ensured in an era of uncertain geopolitical developments and growing authoritarian tendencies. We also need to reassess our strategies for achieving comparable results across different cultural contexts, particularly regarding the appropriateness of theoretical approaches, measurement concepts, and sampling strategies. Moreover, it is crucial to advance innovative methodological approaches that address these challenges and make use of new technical developments and emerging methods for collecting and analyzing public opinion data. For this reason, we plan to organize three different tracks of sessions:

Track A — Global Shifts and Public Opinion

• Public opinion and conflict resolution
• Studies on political polarization and current risks of democracy
• Geopolitical tensions and the rise of defense and security
• Polling as a Tool for Manipulation
• Fears of Repercussions and Misreporting (especially in illiberal regimes)
• The Complexity of Polling in high, middle and low income countries
• Freedom to conduct and publish public opinion research
• News, media, journalism, and public opinion
• Political behavior, participation, and culture in survey research

Track B — Theoretical, Conceptual, and Cross-Cultural Approaches

• Comparative research as well as international and global survey projects
• Presenting the GRIT Initiative – with first results on the topic of migration
• The Applicability of Theoretical Approaches in Comparative Analysis
• Cross-cultural concerns in data collection
• Conceptual equivalence and comparability across societies
• Measurement errors and cultural response styles
• Language use and translation challenges in multilingual contexts
• Interpreting Public Opinion Data Across Diverse Political and Cultural Settings
• Regional information spheres and cultural specificities

Track C — Innovative Methods for collecting and analyzing data in an era of new technologies

• Methodological challenges and improvements in survey research (sampling, design, response, non-response, measurement errors)
• Panel studies and longitudinal surveys
• Social Network Analysis to address the relational character of spaces
• Alternative polling methods using Computational Social Science
• Artificial Intelligence (AI) challenges in public opinion research and survey methods
• Big data, sentiment analysis, and machine learning
• Data archiving for the advancement of humanity

Abstracts Submission

​​Abstracts Submission Guidelines

Proposals for the WAPOR 2026 Conference are open until May 31, 2026. Submissions must be made electronically through the conference platform: https://access.wapor.org/. We welcome proposals for individual research papers, poster presentations, and pre-organized panels. Submissions may be made in English, Spanish, or Portuguese, with presentations delivered in the same language. Learn more HERE. 

Available Paper Awards

WAPOR awards and prizes are intended to recognize significant accomplishments in the Public Opinion field. Specifically, we encourage future advancements through student awards and yearly accomplishments for exemplary papers and presentations at the annual conference. You can find out more about these prizes HERE. If required, full papers must be submitted electronically to waporoffice@gmail.com by the deadline of May 31, 2026 (by 11:59 pm ET).

Sponsorship

WAPOR 79th annual conference is a great opportunity to showcase your products and services to key decision makers in the international survey and public opinion industry. It also provides the opportunity to meet colleagues, share the latest best practices, and promote survey innovation throughout the world. It’s also a fantastic opportunity for us, as an organization, to show our members which organizations support the mission and ideals of WAPOR. More information on the available sponsorship packages, exhibition and underwriting opportunities is available at the WAPOR website. If you have an idea for an exclusive underwriting opportunity that is not listed, please contact WAPOR Executive Director Kseniya Kizilova at waporoffice@gmail.com.