The public thinks scientist are far more conservative than they are

[jramsaran]

http://people-press.org/report/528/

This is just one chart pulled from a study on scientists.  The "Public" column shows what the public believes to be partisan percentage of scientist (IE the public thinks that 35% of scientists are DEM, 23% are REP, 34% are IND, so on and so forth)

We can see that when the real numbers come out, only 6% of scientist viewed themselves as republican! 

So why does the public think that there are more republican scientists than there are?  Read the study and enjoy!

 

[science_spot]

Sep. 4, 2009 at 6:51 AM

Thanks for sharing!  This is what I found most interesting, and the major reason why I write the science blog for cafemommies! Quoted, from the link you provided:

A substantial percentage of scientists also say that the news media have done a poor job educating the public. About three-quarters (76%) say a major problem for science is that news reports fail to distinguish between findings that are well-founded and those that are not. And 48% say media oversimplification of scientific findings is a major problem. The scientists are particularly critical of television news coverage of science. Just 15% of scientists rate TV coverage as excellent or good, while 83% say it is only fair or poor. Newspaper coverage of science is rated somewhat better; still, barely a third (36%) of the scientists say it is excellent or good, while 63% rate it as only fair or poor.

[jramsaran]

Sep. 5, 2009 at 8:30 PM

it really is a great article! i am glad people are enjoying it!

(Original Poster)