Tea Party members have better scientific comprehension

[subversive science]

http://cnsnews.com/mrctv-blog/matt-vesp ... EWuIe.dpuf

Which also contains a link to the professor's blog entry.

Where the professor says "the relationship is trivially small", and it also becomes apparent that due to the small sample size this correlation has less significance than the one that shows science comprehension decreases as political outlooks move in the rightward direction.

So why didn't you link directly to that rather than the quote-mining article?

I noticed that the sample size of the tea party affiliated was less than one third the size of the non-affiliated. It seems like political alignment is a pretty poor indicator of scientific literacy, especially when compared to education level or religiosity.

[Warren Dew]

If this study was done of Yale students, then it's hardly representative.

It was people randomly picked across the U.S.

[Warren Dew]

In this dataset, I found that there is a small correlation (r = -0.05, p = 0.03) between the science comprehension measure and a left-right political outlook measure, Conservrepub, which aggregates liberal-conservative ideology and party self-identification. The sign of the correlation indicates that science comprehension decreases as political outlooks move in the rightward direction--i.e., the more "liberal" and "Democrat," the more science comprehending.

And some of the statistically literate readers here may note the [negative] r-value and p-value of that study are slightly stronger than the same measures of the Tea Party study...

Yup. I think we can conclude:

Tea Party > left >> RINO aka "moderate" right

.

[Tero]

Tea Party vs non tea party. What kind of comparison is that?

[pErvinalia]

Give Warren a break, guys. The teabaggers are having a very rough day. They need to grasp at something to get their spirits up, even if it's bogus.

I also note that Seth has been VERY quiet on the budget/debt-ceiling deal.

[piscator]

In this dataset, I found that there is a small correlation (r = -0.05, p = 0.03) between the science comprehension measure and a left-right political outlook measure, Conservrepub, which aggregates liberal-conservative ideology and party self-identification. The sign of the correlation indicates that science comprehension decreases as political outlooks move in the rightward direction--i.e., the more "liberal" and "Democrat," the more science comprehending.

And some of the statistically literate readers here may note the [negative] r-value and p-value of that study are slightly stronger than the same measures of the Tea Party study...

Yup. I presuppose:

Tea Party > left >> RINO aka "moderate" right

.

FIXED

[Tero]

Give Warren a break, guys. The teabaggers are having a very rough day. They need to grasp at something to get their spirits up, even if it's bogus.

I also note that Seth has been VERY quiet on the budget/debt-ceiling deal.

He converted all his money to silver and has been busy building a concrete vault for it.

[cronus]

Seems there is adequate elite suppression amongst the Republicans to survive this coming socio-economic collapse...Democratic states, in this brave new dollar-less world, will start with the best of good intentions but likely devolve into small tribal entities with no collective purpose but willing to fight amongst themselves for scarce resources.

[piscator]

Mix that last V8 with vodka, Max.

[Tyrannical]

Give Warren a break, guys. The teabaggers are having a very rough day. They need to grasp at something to get their spirits up, even if it's bogus.

I also note that Seth has been VERY quiet on the budget/debt-ceiling deal.

He converted all his money to silver and has been busy building a concrete vault for it.

Naw, he is building the vault out of silver, and will then paint it black. Clever disguise

[JimC]

Doesn't surprise me. Believing in religion is rather like believing in black swans. There's that study from way back where mathematicians had a greater belief in god than most too. If you take away the religious aspect I should say the Tea Party types with their prepper attitude, interest in money etc are more rational than the democrat 'fairness and niceness' brigade.

I think it's just down to them being rich and getting a decent education. That they choose to believe Hebrew mythology over what they are taught says more about them than how much attention they paid in science class.

As long as the science in question is standard physics and chemistry, and doesn't edge too far into evolution or climate science...

[rainbow]

Since psychology isn't a proper science, how can they comment on 'scientific comprehension'?

[mistermack]

I don't find the result surprising. It's a tiny effect, if it's genuine, and it means nothing.
If you did a similar study on the scientific comprehension of males and females, you would almost certainly find a much bigger difference. And if you did a study of tea-party members, you would probably find more males than females.
That in itself could account for the difference.

Since psychology isn't a proper science, how can they comment on 'scientific comprehension'?

Good point.