PUBLIC OPINION IS UNSTABLE AND UNRELIABLE

public input into the political process can hardly be trusted:
Lazarsfeld, Berelson, and Guadet 1948
The People's Choice:
Berelson, Lazarsfeld, and McPhee 1954
Campbell, Converse, Miller and Stokes 1960
The American Voter

'mushiness index' to assess relative stability of mass opinion data:
Yankelovich 1991

the ability of 'the reasoning voter' to use information shortcuts and thereby contribute to the collective or aggregate wisdom of the 'rational public':
Key 1961, 1966
Sniderman, Brody, and Tetlock 1991
Popkin 1991
Stimson 1991
Page and Shapiro 1992
Lupia and McCubbins 1998

whether or not voters are able to make informed decisions:
Bowler and Donovan 1998
Cronin 1989
Gerber and Lupia 1995, 1999

Zaller denies the existence of any true "position" of individual public opinion, or even of a tendency for mass "preferences" based on aggregated valuation of these opinions (response instability)

converse's 'nonattitudes' differs in that he indicates the public is just guessing at answers they have no knowledge of; not that there can be no stable public opinion

There is no single, organized principle of public opinion. Instead, individuals utilize predispositions (values, beliefs, affect judgments, group evaluations, expectations) in their assessment of political issues. Politicians and elites play a key role in defining these predispositions, but the information level of citizens plays a key role as well.  Contrary to popular public opinion research, then, response variability does not mean that the electorate is incapable of public opinion, but instead impl9ies that public opinion response is more complex than we had imagined. As a result, a consistent left-right political ideology, common in public opinion research, should not be expected from aggregate public opinion.
--ALVAREZ & BREHM 2002

Citizens internalize elements of both sides of a political conflict, which doesn't indicate 'nonattitudes' but rather that voters "internalize elements of both sides of a political conflict" to reconcile conflicting principles present simultaneously in order to make difficult political choices (915).
--LAVINE 2001

Individuals make decisions by adaptation (over time) and through bounded rationality.  In other words, individuals have the capacity and ability to make rational decisions, and in many cases can make decisions within a rational context, but complexities in society make it necessary for individuals to constantly be adapting to their unique circumstances (increasing likelihood of mistakes in decision-making) and also that even in a situation where completely perfect information is known to make a decision, the information must be processed by the individual.  Since each individual will have differing results from this process (even with the same information) the "rational" decision made is done so within the context of the 'boundedness' of the individuals ability to process the information in such a way as to determine the correct outcome.
--JONES 2001