Sunday, September 09, 2007

Liberals think that astrology is scientific: Liberals enjoy a nice laugh at the anti-science of religious fundamentalists, but the 2006 General Social Survey shows us that they, more than anyone, believe that astrology is scientific. Here is the percentage breakdown:


Percent who believe astrology is very or sort of scientific

Extremely liberal 43.3
Liberal 32.2
Slightly liberal 31.4
Moderate 25.9
Slightly conservative 25.9
Conservative 26.1
Extremely conservative 25.0


Almost half of those who are very liberal believe astrology is good science. So why do we believe what they tell us about anything?

Next, what are the IQ differences?


Mean IQ by view on astrology

It's very scientific 90.1
It's sort of scientific 96.5
It's not scientific at all 101.2

These differences are large. If you're like me, you've heard endless jokes about the Bible-thumping, inbreeding, redneck Bush supporters, but how about those moonbeam Obama Mamas?

13 comments:

  1. Anonymous4:53 AM

    Interesting you used the phrase "Obama mamas" because i'd like to know how many of those astrology-believing liberals are WOMEN.

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  2. Anonymous5:16 AM

    Probably the majority, dana.

    ReplyDelete
  3. The difference is that the nuts are in power in the GOP. I bet if you compare the beliefs of Republican Senators with Democratic ones, you'd find a lot more Republicans who believe in creationism than Democrats who believe in astrology.

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  4. Anonymous10:49 AM

    Women just seem drawn to the astrology stuff more than men and I have no idea why and I can't back that up with data either. I know some very intelligent females who think that "there is something to it" when it comes to astrology. I have tried to explain that there is no way that superheated balls of gas that are light years away could have any effect on anyone's lives(except maybe the aliens that live on the planet around their "sun") many times, but it doesn't matter.

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  5. Anonymous1:26 PM

    While I agree astrology is complete, utter BS, it seems more conservatives than liberals believe the Sun revolves around the Earth -- but I'm sure, frequent visitor to GSS that you are, know this :)
    Astrology believers annoy me, sure, but when a person can't get basic, elementary school science right -- that's just disturbing.

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  6. Anonymous2:21 PM

    Ehhh...you know it's more complicated than 'conservatives are smarter than liberals', Ron. There are smart liberals, smart conservatives, dumb liberals, and dumb conservatives, and they're very different people in each case. Half Sigma has done a lot on this.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anonymous3:44 PM

    Far more women have read an astrology report according to the GSS (45% of men, 66% of women, p<1e-19). However, the difference in the percentage of women that believe astrology to be more scientific is very slight - 35% of women think that astrology is very or sort of scientific, compared with 30% of men (p<0.041). So women might be more interested in astrology, but they don't seem to be overwhelmingly attracted to it scientifically.

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  8. Anonymous5:36 AM

    Well, if I had to choose between the two I'll take the Astrologists. They're not trying to seize the government or subvert/squelch legitimate research in an effort force Astrology on the rest of us.

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  9. Anonymous6:50 AM

    Funny, I don't see a link. Maybe you just made it up? Or maybe trucks took the study across the border to Syria?

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  10. Lambert: Appreciate your speed at deciding I'm a liar. Did you really think liberals don't believe in astrology?

    Stop by more often and you might see that I do analyses on the same national data set all the time, so links are not necessary. Google "SDA Archive" and do the analysis yourself with 1972-2006 General Social Survey data, and witness how I report data, while you impugn.

    Great name, by the way.

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  11. Anonymous8:15 AM

    Do you know some scientific astrology websites?

    ReplyDelete
  12. Let us start with stockmarkets tend to rise into the New Moon and crash at Full..Fully measurable by software

    http://corruptionfries.blogspot.com/

    Use spectral analysis to get Mars Saturn primary frequency..

    ReplyDelete
  13. Hello,
    This is an amazing blog post, Thanks very much for the share, Keep posting. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete

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