Vincent P. Barabba
By Jim Cochran
In this installment of the Amstat News series of interviews with ASA presidents and executive directors, we feature a discussion with 1990 ASA President Vincent P. Barabba.
Vince Barabba
Q: Vince, I appreciate your willingness to take time to talk with me. You worked as a political campaign survey researcher from 1964–1962. What did you learn about statistics, politics, or anything else from that experience?
A: Although I did not fully appreciate it at the time, my involvement in the political arena demanded a more relevant and dynamic approach to addressing problems than I had been exposed to during my undergraduate and graduate education. I also learned the importance of understanding the context within which the problem I was working on existed. A good example of this occurred in June of 1972 when I met with Sen. John Tower, who was running for re-election to the U.S. Senate from Texas. I was to deliver the results of a survey we just completed. As I entered the room, Tower, who was already sitting down, said in a stern tone, “Sit down, young man. I understand that you have some bad news for me—which I am also told is not correct.”
Vince retired in 2003 as the general manager of corporate strategy and knowledge development at the General Motors Corporation, where he played a critical role in the development of OnStar.
He served in the United States Air Force from 1954–1958 and is a member of the California Citizens Redistricting Commission. He served twice as director of the U.S. Census Bureau, and is the only person to have been appointed to that position by U.S. presidents of different political parties.
Vince has the distinction of having been appointed to government positions by five presidents: Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and Jimmy Carter to be U.S. Census Bureau director and Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush to be the U.S. representative to the Population Commission of the United Nations. Between his government service and General Motors assignments, he served as the manager of market research for the Xerox Corporation and director of market intelligence for Eastman Kodak.
Vince was a co-founder of Decision Making Information, and he and this organization provided electoral information to political campaigns from city hall to the presidency from 1969–1973. He also served on the board of directors for the Marketing Science Institute, American Institutes for Research, and National Opinion Research Center of the University of Chicago.
In recognition of his performance in the private and public sectors, Vince has received several awards and honors, including an honorary doctorate of laws degree from the trustees of California State University; the Distinguished Alumni Award from California State University at Northridge; induction into the Market Research Council Hall of Fame; the American Marketing Association’s Parlin Award for leadership in the application of science to the discipline of marketing research; the MIT/GM Henry Grady Weaver Award for individuals who have contributed the most to the advancement of theory and practice in marketing science; an honorary membership in the National Computer Graphics Association; the System Dynamics Society’s Applications Award for the best “real-world” application of system dynamics; the Certificate of Distinguished Service for Contribution to the Federal Statistical System from the Office of Management and Budget; and the American Marketing Association’s EXPLOR Award (through Market Insight Corporation), granted to organizations that have demonstrated the most innovative uses of technology in applications that advance research, online or otherwise.
Vince is a co-author of Business Strategies for a Messy World (2013 Palgrave Macmillan), The Decision Loom (2011 Triarchy Press), Surviving Transformation (2004 Oxford University Press), and Meeting of the Minds (1995 Harvard Business School Press). He is the co-author of Hearing the Voice of the Market (1991 Harvard Business School Press) and The 1980 Census: Policy Making Amid Turbulence (1983 Lexington Books). He also served as chair of the National Research Council panel to review the statistical program of the National Center for Education Statistics.
I explained that the information I was providing was accurate, and that it only reflected voter perceptions at the time the survey was conducted and was not a prediction of the outcome of the race. I also said the results showed that his competitor, “Barefoot” Sanders, was perceived as more conservative simply because he had defeated a perceived liberal in the Democratic primary. Tower interrupted me and said the survey was not accurate—it was well known that Sanders was not a conservative. I pointed out that we weren’t measuring reality. We were just measuring perception. Then I smiled and said, “That’s the good news.”
Tower gave me a perplexed look and asked me to explain myself. My explanation was simple: If the actual record showed that Sanders was indeed more liberal than Tower, all Tower had to do was show the facts.
“You’re right,” the Senator said, now smiling and much more enthusiastic. “That will not be too difficult to do. That is good news!”
He then asked me what his campaign staff should do. I suggested he provide explicit examples of where his positions were more conservative than those held by Sanders. In addition, I suggested he get as many conservative Democrats as possible to endorse his candidacy or, at the least, to not publicly endorse Sanders. In November, Tower defeated Barefoot Sanders 55% to 45%. This is a terrific example of how the value of information is in its use … not its collection!
The basic point of this story is that the information from the surveys did not cause Tower to be re-elected. What caused his re-election was the manner in which Tower and his campaign organization addressed issues the survey identified. In other words, it was the senator’s willingness to overcome his early reservations about findings that were inconsistent with his perceptions and his acceptance that the survey was not a report card on him personally that led to uses of the information that mattered. And for me, an experience-based form of learning had just started.
Q: In what volunteer roles had you served the ASA prior to being elected ASA president?
A: While I was at the Census Bureau through the 1970s, I spent a considerable amount of time working to improve access to the results of the various census studies. Part of that effort was the attempt to present the information in a graphical form. There were many papers written and conferences set up and supported by the Census Bureau staff. The effort led to an increased discussion about the use of graphics as a method to display statistics in a form that might be better understood by a wider audience.In 1985, I worked with several society members (I think Al Biderman was one of them … might be worth checking) to encourage the ASA to establish the Statistical Graphics Section. As stated in the description of the section, “The principal objectives of this section are to foster understanding and proper use of statistical graphics in statistics, other scientific fields, the mass media, and the general public and to encourage the teaching of statistical graphics in universities, colleges, secondary schools, and primary schools, as well as encourage research in statistical graphics.” I’ve always felt that was one of my most meaningful contributions.
Q: What are your feelings about the future of the ASA? What makes you particularly optimistic about the ASA’s future? What concerns do you have that you feel need to be addressed?
A: My feelings toward the future of the ASA are generally positive. Today, there is a greater appreciation for the need to bring together the efforts in improving scientific observation (knowledge) and rational intuition (imagination). The need to ensure that the knowledge created is designed for its eventual use is found in the wisdom of C. West Churchman when he wrote the following:
To conceive of knowledge as a collection of information seems to rob the concept of all its life. Knowledge is a vital force that makes an enormous difference in the world. Simply to say that it is storage of sentences is to ignore all that this difference amounts to.
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