As I continue to catch up from vacation (made harder by the work trip I’m currently on), I figured I’d continue my trend of outsourcing to the fantastic Dan Kahan. Here are a couple striking graphs and analysis from a post of his earlier this month (emphasis in original):
No, it’s not the case that that “liberals” are more likely to be anti-vaccine than “conservatives.”
And guess what? People on the “right” are not meaningfully “anti-vaccine” either, as you can see (if you can’t see that in the figure, what does that mean?).
And –despite the boring boring boring “growing anti-science sensibility” trope to the contrary– there’s no meaningful correlation between climate-change skepticism and disbelief in evolution and the perception that childhood vaccines endanger public health!
So next time you want to “sound smart” without knowing anything, please don’t make that claim either. Becaues the truth– in case that really matters to you & isn’t something you just say you care about for effect–is that there is widspread cultural consensus in the US that universal vaccination is a very valuable thing.
Also, while we are on the topic: No, there’s no meaningful correlation between holding “liberal”—or “conservative”—views and being concerned about GM food risks! In fact, the vast majority of ordinary people don’t have any particular opinion on GM foods whatsoever!
Read the whole thing.
Interesting. I’d love to see the data collection, population selections, randomisation, and unbiasing methods.