What does "bradley effect" mean?

[Hime]

Some people talk about "bradley effect" for
this comming Presidential election.

What does "bradley" mean? And
why do you call the phenomenon "bradley effect"?

[Yankee]

Hi Hime

You can read about "the Bradley effect" here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bradley_effect

Personally, I don't think there's going to be much (if any) Bradley effect tomorrow.
.

[Barb_D]

I heard a really interesting news artcile on this the other day. The original pollsters for Bradley, who has been working with him throughout the campaign, had predicted results very close to the final results. Then a nationally prominent pollster made much more aggressive predictions on Bradley's numbers, and when he was proven to be wrong, he was the one who created the term to justify his error. They also said that with automated telephone calls and the perception that the pollsters are anonymous strangers and not people who might know (and judge) you, the likelihood of people giving more "socially desirable" answers is minimal.

[Hime]

Thanks!