March 30, 2012

Yet another Lefty lie debunked...

Glenn Reynolds, writing on that supposed finding that "Confidence in science by conservatives has declined since 1974"...

...UPDATE: Reader Mary Ritenour writes:

I tracked back to the original paper (http://www.asanet.org/images/journals/docs/pdf/asr/Apr12ASRFeature.pdf) to see what the exact survey question was.
"The GSS asked respondents the following question: "I am going to name some institutions in this country. As far as the people running these institutions are concerned, would you say you have a great deal of confidence, only some confidence, or hardly any confidence at all in them [the Scientific Community]?" (page 172)
The confidence in "people running these institutions" was being measured, not "Science" itself. Huge difference. HUGE!

Maybe we should be skeptical of science reporting, too...

Actually if you follow the link to the article Conservative Distrust of Science, it's not "science reporting" at all. It's "sociology." Which is to say, you can presume it to be rubbish unless presented with very strong evidence to the contrary.

Posted by John Weidner at March 30, 2012 8:21 PM
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