Monday, October 31, 2011

Ethnicity and nihilism

I calculated mean nihilism scores by ethnic group. (The question is about agreement that life serves no purpose, sample size = 3,051):

Mean nihilism score

Mexicans 1.93*
Filipino 1.80
Polish 1.78*
Puerto Rican 1.74
Czech 1.73
French Canadians 1.69
American Indian 1.68
Blacks 1.59
Swiss 1.58
Danish 1.57
Hungarian 1.55

Average 1.55

French 1.51
Italians 1.51
Asian Indian 1.50
Spanish 1.50
Germans 1.50
Chinese 1.50
Scottish 1.48
Jewish 1.48
Dutch 1.47
English/Welsh 1.47
Irish 1.48
Yugoslavs 1.40
Norwegian 1.40
Swedish 1.36**
Russian 1.35
Greek 1.33**
 
* significantly above average
** significantly below average
 
Data analyses on this blog have revealed again and again that Mexican Americans are in many ways a distinctive group. The gap between them and Greek Americans is large--three-quarters of a standard deviation. One reason why farm workers are nihilistic (as we saw in the previous post) is because they are disproportionately Mexican.
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7 comments:

  1. could be the same reason why health aid workers are nihlistic: filipino's are heavy in that field.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous8:54 AM

    Or mexicans are highly nihilistic because they're farmworkers...

    ReplyDelete

  3. Seems like nihilism would negatively correlate with baby making...

    And yet...

    ReplyDelete

  4. "Seems like nihilism would negatively correlate with baby making..."

    You're forgetting the other factors: irresponsibility and preference for short-term gratification.

    ReplyDelete

  5. "One reason why farm workers are nihilistic (as we saw in the previous post) is because they are disproportionately Mexican."

    Have you proved this statement? I think you can condition on both ethnicity and farm-workerness and calculate mean nihilism scores for both...

    Makes sense given what you've stated, but...can we see?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous1:22 PM

    I hope this isn't just proof of the Greeks' degree of deception/self-deception!

    ReplyDelete

  7. Mexicans 1.93*
    Filipino 1.80
    Polish 1.78*
    Puerto Rican 1.74
    Czech 1.73
    French Canadians 1.69

    The top 6 groups are all traditionally Catholic. That must mean something, but I'm not sure what exactly.

    ReplyDelete

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