First, if it is clear that you haven't read the post itself and leave a comment I won't just not publish it, but I'll ban you. Second, if you complain about this in the comments, I'll ban you too. Now that you feel appropriately welcome, I want to explore some of the issues beneath Chris Mooney's post, Vaccine Denial and the Left:
So I want to further explain my assertion that vaccine denial “largely occupies” the political left. It arises, basically, from my long familiarity with this issue, having read numerous books about it, etc. First, it is certainly true that environmentalists and Hollywood celebrities have been the loudest proponents of anti-vaccine views. To me, that is evidence, although not necessarily definitive. So is the fact that we see dangerously large clusters of the unvaccinated in places like Ashland, Oregon, and Boulder, Colorado, which are very leftwing cities. What’s tricky is, there’s not a standard left-right political ideology underlying this. Rather, it seems more associated with a Whole Foods and au natural lifestyle that, while certainly more prominent on the bicoastal left, isn’t the same as being outraged by inequality or abuses of the free market.
This is a tricky issue. There is a stereotype that liberals who reject religion tend to gravitate toward New Age/environmentalist spirituality. "The mind abhors a vacuum" model. I used to accept this, but if you poke around the General Social Survey the reality is more complicated. For example, you can look up attitudes toward genetically modified food and astrology. The results don't fall neatly into a Left-Right dichotomy. Part of the issue is that there has been aggregation of distinct groups into on catchall category. Consider me. I identify as a conservative, which would indicate a far higher odds of me being a Creationist, but I'm clearly not. There aren't any questions about vaccination in the General Social Survey, but there are several about trust and faith in science, or lack thereof. First I pruned all of the questions which were before 1998. So the results below are for the 2000s by and large. After that I had a set of variables to play with, to serve as replicates in terms of observing trends. Below are three tables with my results. Table #1 is just a set of results which shows how political ideology, party identification, and educational attainment, correlate with attitudes toward science. So in that table the columns add up to 100%. So below 4% of liberals strongly agree while the assertion that "we trust too much in science," and 21% strongly disagree. The second table is limited to self-identified liberals. I wanted to query how attitudes toward science vary by demographic among liberals. In this case the rows add up to 100% on the margin (rotated from the first table). So in terms of those who strongly agree that we trust too much in science, 29% are male and 71% female, among self-identified liberals. Remember that in some classes there won't be a 50/50 breakdown, so look for the variation in relative trends. Finally, for the third table I have a regression. I now divided the sample into liberal and conservative groups, and ran a set of variables to predict opinions on the questions which I've covered so far. The first row has the R-squared, the magnitude of which illustrates how much the listed variables predict variation on the question. Subsequent rows have beta values for the variables, which indicate the direction and magnitude of the effect from that given variable. The questions are all easily numerical, or recoded as numerical (e.g., atheist, agnostic...to total belief in God is 1, 2...6). To get an intuition as to what's going on, just look at each variable and its value. Those which are bold are statistically significant at p = 0.05. For example, among liberals confidence in belief in god seems to decrease trust in science. Socioeconomic status seems to increase it. Please note that I've omitted some categories for variables where the sample size is too small, so some rows/columns may be less than 100% (e.g., Jews in "religion"). Additionally I've removed some response classes where N < 25, as the noise can confuse the trend line.
TRUSTCIWe trust too much in science
POLVIEWSLibModCons
Strongly agree4810
Agree162328
Neither223025
Disagree372829
Strongly disagree21118
PARTYIDDemIndRep
Strongly agree789
Agree222326
Neither243127
Disagree322430
Strongly disagree14149
DEGREENon-collegeCollege
Strongly agree93
Agree2616
Neither2723
Disagree2934
Strongly disagree824
NEXTGENScience & tech. give more opportunities to next generation
POLVIEWSLibModCons
Strongly agree423540
Agree485753
Disagree886
Strongly disagree211
PARTYIDDemIndRep
Strongly agree383441
Agree545652
Disagree7106
Strongly disagree111
DEGREENon-collegeCollege
Strongly agree3645
Agree5550
Disagree85
Strongly disagree10
SCIFAITHBelieve too much in science, not enough in faith
POLVIEWSLibModCons
Strongly agree10915
Agree324037
Neither232825
Disagree241820
Strongly disagree1153
PARTYIDDemIndRep
Strongly agree111012
Agree383837
Neither232927
Disagree211820
Strongly disagree754
DEGREENon-collegeCollege
Strongly agree135
Agree4127
Neither2527
Disagree1729
Strongly disagree411
TOOFASTScience makes our way of life change too fast
POLVIEWSLibModCons
Strongly agree1089
Agree314238
Disagree484345
Strongly disagree1278
PARTYIDDemIndRep
Strongly agree10107
Agree384236
Disagree434148
Strongly disagree978
DEGREENon-collegeCollege
Strongly agree115
Agree4031
Disagree4350
Strongly disagree614
SCISPECScience is too concerned with theory and speculation
POLVIEWSLibModCons
Strongly agree476
Agree233336
Disagree505352
Strongly disagree2376
PARTYIDDemIndRep
Strongly agree675
Agree293433
Disagree505253
Strongly disagree1577
DEGREENon-collegeCollege
Strongly agree73
Agree3523
Disagree5154
Strongly disagree720
Opinions of science of self-identified liberals. Rows = 100% or less
We trust too much in science
MaleFemale
Strongly agree2971
Agree4258
Neither4357
Disagree4654
Strongly disagree4951
WhiteBlack
Strongly agree4047
Agree5928
Neither7713
Disagree8011
Strongly disagree861
Non-collegeCollege
Strongly agree8614
Agree8119
Neither7228
Disagree6436
Strongly disagree4060
ProtestantCatholicNone
Strongly agree65216
Agree58259
Neither363222
Disagree382723
Strongly disagree301839
Science & tech. Give more opportunities to next generation
MaleFemale
Strongly agree4159
Agree4357
Disagree5545
WhiteBlack
Strongly agree7313
Agree7218
Disagree6920
Non-collegeCollege
Strongly agree5941
Agree6634
Disagree6733
ProtestantCatholicNone
Strongly agree332429
Agree402525
Disagree541627
Believe too much in science, not enough in faith
MaleFemale
Strongly agree3367
Agree4060
Neither3961
Disagree3961
Strongly disagree5347
WhiteBlack
Strongly agree5237
Agree6026
Neither7416
Disagree847
Strongly disagree912
Non-collegeCollege
Strongly agree8416
Agree8119
Neither7030
Disagree5446
Strongly disagree3961
ProtestantCatholicNone
Strongly agree522114
Agree473110
Neither343029
Disagree372128
Strongly disagree15660
Regression results
TRUSTSCINEXTGENSCIFAITHTOOFASTSCISPEC
Liberals
R-squared0.2070.0260.1780.0880.149
Age0.014-0.0040.04-0.05-0.037
Socioeconomic index0.2790.0480.040.1590.13
Educational attainment-0.047-0.2120.1070.062-0.019
Vocab score0.1550.0860.1120.120.306
Confidence in belief in God-0.2750.069-0.314-0.083-0.135
Conservatives
R-squared0.0960.020.130.060.087
Age-0.0520.029-0.071-0.11-0.06
Socioeconomic index-0.017-0.0340.0320.0070.072
Educational attainment0.05-0.0360.1410.115-0.031
Vocab score-0.057-0.0260.1090.1450.245
Confidence in belief in God-0.3270.044-0.266-0.091-0.18
